Why I don't worry about AI taking my job

Yesterday, a make-up artist I have worked with in the past posted an image on Instagram stories that made me stop what I was doing. 

It was an image of 2 models wearing some jewellery. It was an image created with AI, accompanied by a text saying something along these lines:

"No casting fees, no hair, make-up, or wardrobe teams. No limitation on skin tones, body type or representation.

What would cost you $1000+ in a traditional shoot, I can create with none of the overhead and all of the impact.

Your jewellery can be added directly to the models. No need to hire a team. 

Giving you visual freedom without the camera.”

It isn’t the first time I've seen a post like this. The first time I saw one of those, it made my blood boil. I was offended. 

My instant thought was: “All the work I have done for years for someone to happily announce I may not be needed anymore. Thank you very much, people!”

And that is why some of us are scared that AI will take our jobs, especially when we see posts like this, promoting the end of our careers. 

But here is the thing: I don’t fear AI.

Maybe once the robots take over the world, I would look at it differently… but at the moment, I am adapting to it. 

I have been reading quite a lot and seeing the debates around it on the web and on LinkedIn, everyone with different takes.

I feel like AI is the new phone, which previously was the TV, radio, etc. We just need to get our heads around it, and that may take time. But I embrace it, and I use it in moderation as I can completely see all the negative impact it can have not only in my work, but also on my brain and creativity. I can make you lazy very quickly!

But back to the initial post… as a photographer and creative, it hurt a bit.

And then I thought, “Okay, let’s see this from a different point of view”. 

Let’s analyse the pros and cons and see how this could be beneficial or not. So here it is, my analysis and take.

Analysis: The practical and technical side

Let’s say I am a business owner, just starting my business with a limited budget.

This offer would be a great way for me to save money. For someone who isn’t a creative person, it sounds perfect. 

If someone were to sell me a tool that, by just giving orders, could do my tax return and control my finances, I would also probably invest in it!

But let’s go deeper. I haven’t looked into this service, but I am wondering: how do they create your jewellery pictures from scratch? You will still need to take some basic pictures for them to recreate the images. 

Or perhaps you have to post the pieces? I can also imagine quite a lot of back and forth via email. Also, on retouching the photographs, you may not like them straight away. 

I have played around with AI, and sometimes the prompt you use doesn’t give you the exact results you were hoping for…

But let’s say this company is an expert on AI. They use paid AI software and manage to create these beautiful images. 

How much cheaper is it? Because if they claim a shoot like this costs $10000, are they charging you $100 then?

They know they could charge way more, but you know there is half ( or even more) of the effort that a full shoot requires. You will probably be hiring only 1 person, not 10. 

So… is that a feasible business for them? 

I guess it would be interesting to have a consultation with them to understand the whole process. If someone has done it, please let me know!

Analysis: The human experience

The thing is that avoiding a shoot, you also avoid an experience.

You are taking away all the fun from creating and shooting, apart from killing all creativity.

A shoot is way more than a job; it’s a full-on experience: the brainstorming, the planning, the excitement, the stress, but also the satisfaction of creating something good and within a team. Nothing beats the feeling of seeing your work reflected in the final images. 

If you use AI to do it all, you will take away the human connection, the colleagues who become friends. I have many friends who started as colleagues! 

But not only that, you also won’t do any networking. In a shoot, the person that you work with and get along well, may become your new customer, or may get you your next gig or become a cheerleader for your brand and tell all their friends about it. 

And what about all the fun moments and stories that happen during the shoots? Or clumsy moments! Those are all memories that AI cannot create. 

With AI, you aren’t only erasing the creative part, you are erasing career progression, experience, satisfaction and memories. 

All the human emotions that a beautiful job brings. 

The outcome

So let’s say you use this service, you get your images. They look nice…but do they look real? Do they look relatable?

This may work for your campaign, website, but would it work for social media? 

People buy from people, and we can see how important it is to have an audience, influencers, brand ambassadors, etc. What will happen when you have to create that type of organic content?

Then you will have to start from 0 and learn how to organise a shoot, how to deal with people and negotiate deals. 

Using a tool like this may be a good tool when you are starting, but when you are progressing it may become obsolete.

Also, if all your images aren’t real, how can you make sure your business doesn’t look like a scam? People are very self-aware nowadays of online scamming, so you need to make sure they know there is a person behind your business. 

Conclusion

I don’t think relying on AI as a final product is a smart choice.

I think there will be a bounce back into authenticity when people get tired of everyone sounding and looking the same.

People will crave connections, real talks, experiences, and emotions. Real life. And you can see it now: so many brands are doing pop-ups and events in person. 

And if you have built your whole business on AI, it may be hard to then tell people your business is real. These are my thoughts and my humble opinion.

And yes, my pride may have been hurt when I read that someone can get visual freedom without a camera. 

I just hope people understand that there is more to photography than a click. That creativity is a very powerful tool, and that not everything should be replaced by a machine.

And I hope we aren’t stupid enough to stop ourselves from doing work we enjoy doing. Only time will tell!

If you enjoy my writing, my content or want to share your thoughts with me, please leave a comment below, and you can always subscribe to my newsletter here to receive monthly articles like this one and other stories. 

Thanks for reading!