What is changing
AI can now write, draw, edit photos, cut video, compose music and clone a voice from a short sample. The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics counted about 213,000 graphic designers on payrolls in May 2023 and about 198,000 in May 2025, and projects a further 2% decline from 2025 to 2035. Desktop publishers are projected to decline 12%. Writers and authors are projected to hold flat, and payroll jobs for reporters have fallen from about 65,000 in 1999 to about 39,000 in 2025.
The other side of the ledger is real too. Web and digital interface designers grew over the same two years graphic designers shrank. Companies need more content than ever, and a person who can direct AI tools can make more of it, faster, for clients who could never afford a full agency.
What AI changes, and what stays yours
| Role | What AI changes | What stays yours |
|---|---|---|
| Graphic designer | First drafts, variations, resizing for every channel, background removal | The idea, taste, the brand, the client relationship |
| Writer or copywriter | First drafts, research summaries, headline options, edits for length | Voice, the story, what is true, what the reader needs |
| Editor | Proofreading, fact flags, style checks, summaries | Judgment on what runs, the writer's trust |
| Reporter | Transcripts, document searches, data analysis, first drafts of routine stories | Sources, interviews, verification, the decision to publish |
| Photographer | Culling, retouching, editing, client galleries and emails | The moment, the light, the people in front of the lens |
| Video editor or camera operator | Rough cuts, captions, color matching, clips for social media | The story, pacing, the shot itself |
| Musician or composer | Demos, arrangements, practice tracks, booking and promotion | Performance, the song, the room |
| Actor or voice actor | Routine voice reads, translations of a performance, auditions recorded at home | Performance, and consent over your face and voice |
Laying out pages, resizing the same ad twenty ways, routine product descriptions, stock photos, basic retouching, transcription and simple voice reads are shrinking fast. If those make up most of your paid work, move closer to the idea and the client: the concept, the direction, the story and the final call on what is good. You already know how the work gets made. Learn to direct the tools that now make the first draft, and you can deliver in a day what used to take a week.
The Decision Line
Two rules shape this field. The first is consent: the 2023 contract between the Hollywood studios and SAG-AFTRA requires consent and payment before a studio can make a digital copy of a performer, and several states protect a person's voice and likeness. The second is authorship: the U.S. Copyright Office has said that work made entirely by AI cannot be copyrighted, and that a person's own creative choices are what the law protects.
AI can draft, vary, edit and organize. What the piece says, whose face or voice appears in it, whether a fact is true and whether the work is good enough to carry your name stay with you. Put your own creative choices into everything you deliver, and keep a record of them.
Try a request for your role
Pick the role closest to yours. Copy the request into any AI assistant you are allowed to use, fill in the parts in brackets with your own material, and leave out anything private.
Client work, unreleased material and other people's faces and voices go only into tools whose terms you have read and your client allows. Check every fact, number and date before you use the answer. Steps that put things on your calendar may need a paid plan or a linked calendar; if you do not have one, add them yourself from the list. The check-in line keeps you in control: Before you start, ask me any questions you have. Then tell me in a few lines how you plan to do this, and wait for my OK.
Where this work can grow
The first new job is usually your own, grown. A designer who can direct AI tools can take on motion, video and web work that once went to someone else. Beyond that, two directions suit people from this field.
Digital and interface designer
Web and digital interface designers grew from about 111,000 to about 113,000 on payrolls between May 2023 and May 2025, while print-focused design shrank. It suits graphic designers and production artists.
Independent creator for small businesses
Many small businesses now want video, photos and posts every week and cannot afford an agency. A person who can shoot, write and direct AI tools can serve several of them at once. This path has no single job count, so treat it as a direction to test while you earn.
Sources
- Jeffrey Katzenberg, The World is Changing: AI For Creativity, on X (September 23, 2026): x.com
- Thread Navigator, readable copy of the essay: threadnavigator.com
- Gizmodo, coverage of the essay: gizmodo.com
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Desktop Publishers: bls.gov
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, OEWS tables: bls.gov
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, News Analysts, Reporters, and Journalists: bls.gov
- BuzzStream, how many journalists are there in the U.S., from BLS OEWS: buzzstream.com