Creatives shun AI as cheating, says new research from Designit

London, 11th March 2024: Creatives are continuing to play it safe when it comes to using AI and avoiding it in the belief that it’s a ‘creative cheat’, according to new research from Designit, the Wipro-owned global experience innovation consultancy.

Some 84% of creatives see AI as merely a helpful assistant, and a significant minority believe strongly that using AI as part of the creative process amounts to cheating.

The findings come from a Designit poll that canvassed 1,200 creatives, including leading industrial, product and UX designers, on their feelings about using AI as part of their creative processes. 

Qualitative feedback included one respondent likening AI to ‘an enthusiastic junior prospect with exceptional math skills’. Another respondent commented that the use of AI was inevitable but likely to be abused in the creative sector in the same way ‘as steroids are to the fitness industry’. 

The poll findings from practising creatives chimes with those from a smaller student survey carried out as part of Designit’s recent AI residency at the School of Visual Arts which revealed that future designers see a reliance on AI as cheating. 

Miguel Sabel, global head of strategy and sustainability at Designit, said: ‘For many designers and creatives, the job is part and parcel of their wider identity, so the suspicion towards AI that our poll revealed is understandable. The current conversations around which elements of the creative profession are likely to be automated by AI exacerbate the tendency to keep AI at arm’s length from the creative and use it only for safer, admin tasks. 

‘But playing it too safe means lagging behind. The notion that using a new technology to your advantage is disingenuous in some way misses the point that fundamentally, what people care about is the portrait you painted - in our world, the product or experience you created and the impact it has - rather than the brushes you used to paint it. It’s all about knowing where and when to apply new technology, which is especially true if it can inspire creativity - but it's the end result and its externalities what counts"

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Editors notes

Designit is a global experience innovation company with creativity at our core. For more than 30 years, we’ve helped businesses build competitive advantage and deliver positive change through creative pragmatism.

We use our expertise in strategy, design, marketing, and tech to create bespoke solutions to the most complex of client problems. Our clients include BMW, Kraft-Heinz, and Microsoft.

Across 14 locations from Aarhus to Australia, we’re home to 700+ designers, analysts, creators, strategists, and marketers, united by a single ambition to create the change we want to see in the world and turn innovation into progress that can be shared by all.