Design industry leaders say AI won't replace designers, employment data backs them up

[BretHart_X]

Design industry leaders told the Guardian that professional designers shouldn't feel threatened by generative AI's rapid growth, pointing to robust sector employment figures despite widespread public anxiety about job losses. Design Council chief executive Mat Hunter said designers are already using AI to add value rather than seeing it eliminate their roles, arguing design is often wrongly considered a nice-to-have when it's actually essential across industries from advanced manufacturing to digital services

Design Business Council chief executive Deborah Dawton said what protects skilled designers from AI is skill, experience, empathy and deep understanding of the sectors they work in, adding that if workers operate at that level they shouldn't feel threatened. Recent research from The King's Institute for Artificial Intelligence and the Policy Institute found 57 percent of the public believes AI will cause mass unemployment, a gap between that widespread anxiety and the sector's own reported 40 percent employment growth since 2019, ahead of the broader economy's average growth rate

Dawton drew a parallel to when computer-aided design software displaced draughtspeople, arguing modern designers facing this new transition can similarly find new opportunities elsewhere in the field, while noting AI substituting for human design work isn't entirely new since rip-offs have been happening for a very long time. Curious what people think about this specific argument, does design's employment growth genuinely prove the sector is safe from AI disruption, or does it simply mean the disruption hasn't caught up with the data yet

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