Your new AI coworker

The world of creative generative AI is upon us. With all the hype surrounding AI generative chatbots like Google's Bard or OpenAI's ChatGPT, it's easy to overlook what design-focused companies like Adobe are cooking up. Just a couple days ago, Adobe announced their new suite of creative generative AI, dubbed Firefly.

Shelly Palmer, who I was lucky enough to hop on a webinar with a couple weeks ago, just updated a 2019 blog post in which he details a possible outcome for graphic designers living in a world where you can essentially feed an AI a few prompts and generate stunning images that are (or quickly will become) good enough for most cases.

You won't hire a robot, you'll hire people who know how to coexist with these AI generators. It's a powerful tool. Not knowing how to use it will be a massive detriment and, sorry to say, anyone who is just getting into graphic design is going to be quickly outpaced by those who can utilize prompting and bend these AIs to their will.

It's scary and exciting, and I want to be on top of that wave rather than underneath it. I've still got a lot of time left here as a designer and the next 20-30 years are going to be interesting as hell.