Overheard a junior dev say AI tools will replace all designers by 2027

I was grabbing coffee near a co-working space last Tuesday and heard two guys arguing about AI in design. The younger one said within 3 years agencies won't need human creatives for basic branding work. That stuck with me because I've already seen 4 freelance gigs dry up for a friend who does logo work. AI can spit out 50 options in 2 minutes, but none of them had the context or story behind them. I think the real value is still in the strategy and the human touch you bring to a project. Has anyone else noticed clients asking for AI-generated mockups before even talking to you?

3 comments

3 Comments

wyatt_mitchell261mo ago

Charge extra for that strategy piece. I tell every client now that AI can make the pretty pictures but it can't figure out why their customers actually care. Baked that research and discovery work into a separate fee that's higher than the design part. Most clients balk at first until they see AI junk that looks cool but says nothing about their brand. Then they come back and pay for the real thinking. Gotta make the strategy step non-negotiable or they'll try to cut corners every time.

nathan9011mo ago

Ha yeah that's exactly it. I had a client tell me last month they could just use Midjourney for their whole rebrand and save the money. I told them go ahead, let me see what you get. They came back three weeks later with 50 variations of the same generic mountain logo and zero explanation of why anyone should care. Charged them double my original strategy fee to fix the mess and they paid it without blinking. The funny thing is once you show them that AI cant figure out their audience's actual pain points they start treating strategy like gold. It really does become non-negotiable when they understand the alternative is just pretty wallpaper.

the_mary1mo ago

I get what you're saying but I kinda see it the other way. Charging more for strategy just tells clients it's a premium add-on they can skip, not the actual foundation. I keep strategy as the base fee and make design the variable part, seems to work better for me.