Will AI replace Art Directors?
AI reaches a large part of this job’s work.
45/100
High exposure
More exposed to AI than 72% of US workers.
- AI already used in
- 19% of the work
- As AI tools mature: up to
- 84% of the work
What the job involves
Formulate design concepts and presentation approaches for visual productions and media, such as print, broadcasting, video, and film. Direct workers engaged in artwork or layout design.
Where AI reaches the work
The job’s main tasks, heaviest first, by how far AI reaches them.
Already happening(4)
- Create custom illustrations or other graphic elements.
- Confer with clients to determine objectives, budget, background information, and presentation approaches, styles, and techniques.
- Mark up, paste, and complete layouts and write typography instructions to prepare materials for typesetting or printing.
- Prepare detailed storyboards showing sequence and timing of story development for television production.
Within reach(9)
- Work with creative directors to develop design solutions.
- Present final layouts to clients for approval.
- Confer with creative, art, copywriting, or production department heads to discuss client requirements and presentation concepts and to coordinate creative activities.
- Formulate basic layout design or presentation approach and specify material details, such as style and size of type, photographs, graphics, animation, video, and sound.
- Review and approve art materials, copy materials, and proofs of printed copy developed by staff members.
and 4 more
Out of reach(3)
- Attend photo shoots and printing sessions to ensure that the products needed are obtained.
- Hire, train, and direct staff members who develop design concepts into art layouts or who prepare layouts for printing.
- Negotiate with printers and estimators to determine what services will be performed.
Also called
Art Director · Art Supervisor · Creative Director (CD Director) · Creative Services Manager · CD Director · Creative Manager · Creative Services Director · Design Director
Related jobs
What these numbers mean
The score is the share of this job’s work, weighted by how important and frequent each task is, that AI could do in half the time: tasks an AI model could do alone count in full, tasks that need software built on AI count half.
“AI already used” is the share of the work in tasks where people are recorded using AI today. “As AI tools mature” counts every task AI could halve, with or without extra software.
The percentile compares the score with every job’s, weighted by how many people in the US do each one. Exposure means AI could change how the work is done, not that the job goes away. These are estimates for the typical job, not predictions.
Sources
- O*NET 31.0 Database, U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration
- GPTs are GPTs: Labor market impact potential of LLMs (task labels), Eloundou, Manning, Mishkin & Rock (2023), OpenAI and University of Pennsylvania
- Anthropic Economic Index: labor market impacts (task penetration), Anthropic
- Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics, May 2025 (national and metropolitan areas), U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics