The rise of Sora, DALL-E, ChatGPT, and other generative AI platforms likely has some companies wondering if they still need content creators, graphic designers, videographers, or copywriters. Those roles have made the business world go around for decades. Now, some agencies are even trying to go without them.

Creators, as a result, are concerned about AI taking their jobs. How worried should they be? Not as much as one might think. The World Economic Forum predicts AI will create 97 million new jobs by the end of next year, which is 12 million more roles than it would disrupt. Some jobs will go away but more will be created as roles evolve—that will be true in creative fields and all industries.

Content creators are going nowhere, but their roles—freelancers, in-house, or entrepreneurs—are about to undergo a metamorphosis. Here, I explain the few critical changes afoot, and what it means for marketing and advertising.

MORE CREATORS WILL (OR SHOULD) BE COMPENSATED

First, creators can only survive if they get paid, and those using tech platforms to produce their work should be compensated for their efforts with royalties. By developing content that feeds data into the platforms, they make large language models (LLMs) and AI more intelligent daily.

This model benefits creators with pay, creativity platforms with data, and all users with a better user experience (UX). It’s early days, as paying content-creation programs from my company, Canva, and others like StabilityAI and Adobe, are just months old.

But I predict waves of visual creators will get on board, just as writers by the thousands have joined Medium, Substack, Ghost.org, and Milyin to earn income for their words. It’s just a matter of time.

KNOW-HOW DRIVES INSPIRATION AND SUCCESS

AI is inevitable because it’s useful. Generative AI makes workflows more efficient than ever before, and saves people time and money in the process.

That utility makes it unlikely that companies or content creators will opt out of it, which means content creators need to make their talents a must-have service rather than a nice-to-have resource. They need to become indispensable.

Rather than trying to eliminate the use of AI, content creators should lean into how AI can scale their output instead of replacing it; allowing them to bring more inspired ideas to life at a speed previously unseen. For example, an artist can sketch a character by hand, upload that image to an AI-powered platform, and use the tools to produce a hundred different poses or looks of the character rather than manually creating every single variation. It’s still the content creator’s work—their intellectual property—and it still represents a fulfilling way to make a living.

At the same time, none of that matters if content creators aren’t prepared to adapt with AI skills like prompt creation, and a working knowledge of the text-to-image/video tools out there. Understanding how AI prompts work and how to handle and direct AI-assisted workflows will be specialized skills and extremely valuable in the marketplace.

Further, once creators start testing their tech options, they’ll prefer certain AI tools over others. I imagine we’ll see some creators go on to build their own AI tools. With this in mind, they should test-run every AI tool and figure out the best ways for them, personally, to scale creativity.

HUMAN SWISS ARMY KNIVES OUTSMART AI

Over time, AI skills will be vital to content-minded companies because the creator can simultaneously handle at least two roles (if not more): the creator and the editor. This extends across creative sectors. Whether the role is in visual design, music, video production, or text-based creativity, editors are pivotal in ensuring AI-generated content meets standards.

From a longer-term view, the creator-editor role will enable content specialists to oversee projects and ensure that they’re on brand from start to end. For instance, when generating text-to-video content, the creator can gut-check each output; and if it’s not on brand, they can use their AI prompting skills to iterate and adjust the video accordingly. This entails levels of sensitivity that AI could never compute.

So now, content creators can represent a more lucrative value to an employer or customer—they can be the idea’s originator, the design editor, and the manager of AI workflows. They’re wearing more hats, if not becoming human Swiss Army knives for employers and clients to utilize. By itself, AI doesn’t stand a chance against such versatile creativity.

SKILLS EXPAND OPPORTUNITIES

With AI skills, content creators can also take nonlinear career paths and move into emerging management roles, as AI creates job opportunities for a new generation of problem-solvers. One study found that job openings mentioning AI skills have doubled in the last couple years. Financial institution Wells Fargo is hiring an AI-skilled senior content designer/UX writer and paying up to $180,000 annually. Right now, such job listings will likely attract a relatively small number of qualified applicants because AI is still a new frontier. However, these opportunities will become more competitive as the talent marketplace catches up to AI. As more companies build their AI tech stacks to scale content, I expect job listings like Wells Fargo’s to pop up in my LinkedIn feed more often.

So, it’s not a time for fear or panic for content creators—they’re vital players in the future of AI-powered creativity. Instead, they can tap residual income sources wherever possible and become indispensable by offering the marketplace multifaceted skills,