Graphic Designers

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Lower estimated automation risk

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Occupation snapshot

What does this snowflake show?
The Snowflake is a visual summary of the five badges: Automation Risk (calculated), Risk (polled), Growth, Wages and Volume. It gives you an instant snapshot of an occupations profile. The colour of the Snowflake relates to its size. The better the occupation scores in relation to others, the larger and greener the Snowflake becomes.
JOB SCORE
4.3/10
What's this?
Job Score (higher is better):

We rate jobs using four factors. These are:

- Chance of being automated
- Job growth
- Wages
- Volume of available positions

These are some key things to think about when job hunting.

Risk & user votes

Calculated automation risk

34% (Low Risk)

Low Risk (21-40%): This occupation has a lower risk of full replacement by AI, software, or robotic systems. Some tasks may be automated or assisted, but the role usually still relies on human judgement, communication, responsibility, physical adaptability, or practical decision-making.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Human strengths important in this job

These are human abilities and work contexts that are important in this occupation. They may help explain why parts of the role are harder to replace end-to-end, but they are not the only inputs into the automation score.

Thinking creatively

Very important
Why this matters
Coming up with original ideas and designs—creating new concepts, products, systems, or artistic work. This kind of open-ended invention and taste-based judgment is harder to automate end-to-end than routine, rule-based tasks.
Jobs that also use this strength

Decision-making and problem solving

Very important
Why this matters
Analyze information, weigh tradeoffs, and choose the best solution—especially when situations are ambiguous, high-stakes, or have real-world consequences.
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Social perceptiveness

Quite important
Why this matters
Noticing others’ emotions and reactions in the moment and adjusting what you say or do based on why they’re responding that way.
Jobs that also use this strength

Negotiation

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together to reconcile differences, trade off priorities, and reach agreements—work that depends on trust, persuasion, and reading the situation.
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Coordinating others’ work

Quite important
Why this matters
Bringing people together, assigning tasks, and keeping a group aligned so work gets done.
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Show 4 more strengths

Coaching and developing others

Quite important
Why this matters
Helps people learn and improve through coaching, mentoring, and feedback. This relies on trust, motivation, and adapting guidance to each person—work that’s hard to replace end-to-end with automation.
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Communicating with people outside the organization

Quite important
Why this matters
Represents the organization to customers, the public, or government—handling questions, concerns, and relationship-building through conversations, writing, calls, or email.
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Consulting and advising others

Quite important
Why this matters
Provide guidance and expert advice to managers or teams on technical, system, or process decisions—explaining options, tradeoffs, and recommended actions.
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Active learning

Quite important
Why this matters
Keeps learning from new information and applying it to make better decisions now and in the future, especially when situations change.
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What users think

Based on 4,352 votes

71% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted that it's probable this occupation will be automated. However, employees may be able to find reassurance in the automated risk level we have generated, which shows 34% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Graphic Designers will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?

Sentiment

Based on user votes over time

View sentiment trend

How opinions have changed over time

How opinions have changed over time

Pay & outlook

Wages

Moderately paid relative to other professions

In 2024, the median annual wage for Graphic Designers was $61,300 ($29 per hour).

The median annual wage for Graphic Designers was 23.8% higher than the national median annual wage, which stood at $49,500.

View wage trend

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Growth

Moderate growth relative to other professions

The number of 'Graphic Designers' job openings is expected to rise 2.1% by 2034

View employment trend

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2023 and 2033
Updated projections are due 09-2025.

Volume

Greater range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2024 there were 214,260 people employed as 'Graphic Designers' within the United States.

This represents around 0.14% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 719 people are employed as 'Graphic Designers'.

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What people are saying (174)

Leave a comment
h
06 Jul 2024 14:25
Just no. AI art looks and will always look awful and soulless. People who say "ohhh its ai it'll look better in the future" just dont know how AI works. AI isnt gonna replace ANY creative processes, EVER.
Jim
26 Feb 2025 23:03
This will have aged terribly 10 years from now.
Jimisadork
19 Mar 2026 02:48
🤓
AI art will be good for most people
27 May 2026 22:03
The main reason AI art looks soulless to you is that you know it was generated by AI. Right now you can still tell, soon enough you won't be able to. It's common sense, we all have our taste, we are obviously sooner or later find something done with AI that we enjoy. There's no reason for me to be against your opinion, I enjoy art and I make art, it's just a fact that soon enough the only reason to call every single thing made with AI inferior is being stubborn. And stubbornness won't do anything to change the fact that if something made with AI is good for someone it will still be good for that someone. Something that makes someone feel is never really soulless. I understand it's unfair for people that worked hard to be skilled at art to just have a machine do the same in seconds but that's the way automating thjngs work. It happened to translators, it happened to all sorts of jobs and hobbies. You can still enjoy doing things your way.
Jake (Uncertain)
08 Jul 2024 16:28
AI, at its current stages, can only replicate patterns it sees in the images and text it’s given. It isn’t capable of the knowledge behind the design choices in Graphic Design. AI doesn’t understand anatomy, color theory, or other aspects of art. However, this doesn’t mean that it can’t in the future, and it certainly doesn’t mean it can’t fool us into thinking it knows what it’s doing.
EES (Moderate)
11 May 2025 14:20
it's already seeing tides where ai has already replaced a lot, but no job will be replaced completely within 2 decades. its impractical to leave the job to ai completely, but layoffs and fewer manpower are definitely the way to go
Gabe
07 May 2025 14:48
Hey my fellow designers, i know we all can recognize a good work from a mediocre to bad one, we are trained on our field after all, however there are tons of clients who will see some ai generated slop and feel like it's good enough (specially for logos or illustration).

So yeah, i don't think corporate will slow down on their demand for professionals but freelance will take a huge tool (i think), i myself am trying to expand it as of late, art comissions were never stable but i loved to them (nowadays the chance of getting a client is probably close to 0 since a lot of basic stuff is covered for the average client without high standarts) so i opt out to learn how to tattoo, so maybe if it ever comes to lose my job because of some morons from the tech industry i might have something else to go by.
79_sketches (Uncertain)
18 Dec 2024 21:40
A couple of years ago this was less than 5%. It is scary to see this advance in just 2 years
Azazel (Low)
04 Jul 2024 10:24
Looking that artist fight back against artificial intelligence by making Anti-AI Flitters that seems to lower the risk not to mention what you put as a reason for 34% risk which is that It's hard to automate Originality, fine arts.etc not to mention that every single artist have their own style even in the umbrella terms, for example you can't say style in Toilet Bound Hanako kun is the same as one in Blue Exorcist.etc.
In short: Even if hard it in theory could be possible, but I'm more for making that AI + Artist combo to help people with drawing.
Agt (Low)
21 Mar 2024 02:09
Clients will get designs from automated AI, but they will start to look all very similar, lacking personality. A good graphic designer can listen to their clients and deliver what they ask, get feedback and adjust accordingly
nyah (Low)
06 Jul 2024 03:50
motion graphics is too perfect to replicate
d (No chance)
23 Aug 2023 08:39
Most commentary here is from people who are either very young or very removed from the actual profession of graphic design or most art that is used professionally. It is not, at all, a field that is about "generating" art or designs. It is about exactness, specificity, and unintuitive associations. Exactness from customers, developers, clients, coworkers, bosses, etc.

The problem that people don't seem to understand is that all the generative ai programs right now produce art that's very cool to look at and art that no one would ever pay for, because they don't understand the point of paying for art in the first place.

There are billions of cool images you get get for free online right now. Graphic designers already compete against that, and yet, they're still paid.

Why?

The reason why artists are paid is because people want something very specific, and all generative AI right now, and in the future, will fail the specificity requirement because it by nature has to give probabilistic (aka common) answers, and as people adapt to AI art existing, the demands on specificity will increase.
Anonymous (Low)
25 Apr 2025 17:50
because graphic design requires good creativity, something robots dont have
Electri (Low)
26 Nov 2025 22:55
Because they dont capture the same depth of emotion and they also dont look natural as they make movements too smooth
Sponge Bob Squarepants (Uncertain)
11 Apr 2024 16:31
20 years is a long time. Would you have expected this AI boom twenty years ago? Who knows how fast AI will develop in the future. Imagine showing someone SORA twenty years ago. They would be in disbelief.

Graphic design is too broad of a term in my opinion. There's logo design, web design, package design, wayfinding design, branding, mobile design, t-shirt design, print design, poster design, and much more.

Digital art and illustrations I think are already under threat. When the art being generated is general and the boundaries of art are more forgiving, then the general nature of AI will thrive. But for more exacting work like logo design, web design, and package design, AI struggles from my experience.

I have played around with Adobe's built-in AI tools for Illustrator and Photoshop. While they're cool to play with, I often find myself wasting time playing prompt engineering, when I could have created something on my own faster. If I as a designer don't have patience to prompt-engineer my way into a design, I'm certain clients won't either.

There's also levels to graphic design. Maybe AI will get rid of the bad designers and the bad clients! But the precise, custom, unique work that many clients look for is hard to replace.

Lastly, being a graphic designer is more than just the technical skills. It's about directing a vision for the design. Even if AI is 100% perfect, it may not understand the client's needs.


I personally think AI will replace many good artists too, like with translators
27 May 2026 22:19
"when I could have created something on my own faster. If I as a designer don't have patience to prompt-engineer my way into a design, I'm certain clients won't either." You make a lot of good points in your comment but you are underestimating how cheap people can be, someone who wants free work will find the patience. You said it yourself, you could achieve a faster, probably better result, that contributes to your impatience. For people who don't have the skills it's as simple as two choices, some patience and a free result or paying. Lastly, maybe not even patience will be a requirement eventually, the process could potentially become both really good and intuitive.
sadie (Moderate)
11 Mar 2026 10:30
there are many simple posters being created by ai
Steve (Low)
05 Feb 2025 17:47
High barrier of entry, high returns and low maintenance career after about 15,000 hours.
skibidi (Moderate)
06 Jul 2024 05:55
AI keeps getting better with graphic design in general. Just look at things like Sora by OpenAI or the Microsoft Bing Image Creator, and then think about what that'll look like in a couple of years.
Jeffrey Davis
19 May 2023 13:31
Designers who focus their practice on critical thinking — specifically creative problem solving — are at less risk of automation. Those designers that focus more on aesthetics and technique are at a much higher risk of obsolescence due to automation.

As a design educator at a university with a well respected communication design program who has embraced AI use by my junior/senior level students over the last two semesters, I have watched our students aided by AI, produce more strategic, well researched and well executed advertising and brand designs that far exceed their peers who are not using AI. I have seen the most progress in:
- organization
- accuracy
- time management
- writing skills
- iterative idea generation
- clarity of communication
- audience insights
- persona building
- animation
- automation of manual task
Their approach is more efficient and and happens much quicker allowing them more time for a more irrational process foe problem solving and concept generation and in turn allowing more time for refinement of initial design exploration, which lead to outcomes they far exceeded their expectations.
—-
In my 25-years as a design educator I have never seen this kind of student improvement and quality of outcomes in the above categories/areas.
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These students will — with a high degree of certainty— enter the market with a baseline knowledge of AI that will far exceed most of the more senior employees and management of the firms that will employ them. Most likely they will demonstrate better time management, process and modality engagement and organizational proficiency. Aided by AI and with an in-depth knowledge of AI they will be highly valued for their efficiency by offloading manual and time absorbing task like research, composing emails, etc. allowing them to be hyper focused on create problem-solving and more strategy solutions and outcomes.

We would reserve class time to discuss the ethics and implications of using AI covering, authenticity, originality, IP volitions, copyright violations. Additionally, In compliance with our University’s Code of Academic Honesty they include citations and attributions to what AI sources were used.
—-
Like most of us, I’m both excited and a bit apprehensive about AI. I’m optimistic that AI can help elevate and augment a designer’s approach and creative outcomes. The difficulty I face and an educator is the unprecedented pace at which AI is expanding. There is no doubt they AI will get abused and it will require guidelines and policies that are currently non existent.
To me it would be like telling people cars posed no threat to horses
27 May 2026 22:29
I think you are a great teacher for accepting that AI is a tool that vastly improves workflow and so on, instead of just stubbornly telling your students "AI art will never be true art, don't worry." Sadly, yeah, AI will stop many people from getting jobs, but denial won't change this fact.
Brad (Highly likely)
08 May 2023 22:23
With AI, industries will easily be able to afford an in-house graphic art department that can create endless examples, in different formats. It will also reduce error of wrong prices, misspelled words, etc.
Anonymous (Highly likely)
20 Feb 2023 23:37
AI art is getting insane. Who knows where it'll be in 20 years?
Mohammad Abdullah (Highly likely)
04 Jan 2023 14:05
AI is the biggest threat to graphic designers
Gerry
15 Dec 2022 06:55
Already happening, book covers as well as examples given below

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Job description

Design or create graphics to meet specific commercial or promotional needs, such as packaging, displays, or logos. May use a variety of mediums to achieve artistic or decorative effects.

O*NET-SOC code: 27-1024.00