The Future is Still Prompt
The Future is Still Prompt,
It’s been just over a year since I wrote The Future is Prompt, and I can honestly say I had no idea how quickly things were going to accelerate. Back then, prompt engineering felt like a niche skill. Somewhere between a parlor trick and a creative cheat code. Like crafting a water drop sound in an AOL chat. But now? It’s clear, prompts were just the start. The latest ChatGPT updates, let’s be real it’s still not exact but, it blew the creative doors off anything else since incorporating ai into my work flow in 2022. The barrier to creativity, once guarded by skill, talent, and years of experience, has officially collapsed. Anyone with an idea, a smartphone, and a willingness to explore can now become a creator. That’s exciting. If I’m honest, a little terrifying too.
Because here’s the thing people don’t talk about. AI didn’t have to take our jobs to mess with the creative industry. It just had to shift how people value what we do. The past three month of talking with clients and trying booking work I’ve noticed the energy shift. It’s not personal, it’s historical. We’re entering a time where speed and accessibility are being mistaken for quality and originality.
And yet, I’m not bitter. I’m pivoting.
Rather than fight the tide, I’m diving deeper into what makes creativity human in the first place. It’s not about how well you can render a painting it's about the initial idea that drove you to spend hours in bringing it to life. I’m no longer here just to provide design services. I’m here to inspire the people who’ve never called themselves creative. The ones who’ve said, “I’m not the creative type,” and silently let their ideas die inside their heads. As I explore AI as a tool of creating I hope to breathe life into your own ideas by using this emerging tech yourself. I want to help others uncover the ideas… no… the creative super powers they’ve always had, but never had the tools to express.
We’re moving away from a world where talent alone held the keys and toward one where thinking creatively matters more than perfect execution of creative. Now that anyone can be a creator, the playing field is wide open, but that doesn’t mean design is dead. In fact, I believe demand is about to surge. With more people able to generate half-baked ideas, concepts, and visuals using AI, there will be a new wave of folks who need designers. Not just to make something pretty, but to complete the puzzle, to bring their fragmented ideas to life. The flipside, it’s recalibrating how I value my own time and energy. If something can be done just as well with AI, why am I spending hours doing it the hard way?
This shift isn’t just theoretical, it’s happening now. Shopify CEO Tobi Lütke recently had an internal memo leaked discussing a new policy requiring managers to justify new hires by proving that AI can’t perform the job better. In his memo, Lütke emphasized that using AI effectively is now a fundamental expectation for all employees, with AI usage being evaluated in performance reviews. This underscores a broader industry trend. If AI can handle a task, it’s no longer efficient for humans to do it manually. Reflecting on this, I find myself questioning the value of spending hours on design work that AI can replicate. Instead, I’m channeling my energy into empowering clients to harness AI tools themselves, inspiring them to craft their first prompts and unlock their creative potential. This approach feels more impactful and aligns with the evolving landscape of our industry. At the same time allowing me the space to express myself outside of client work and traditional forms of creating. Experimenting freely with Ai tools to push my original ideas, illustrations and artwork to places that would previously take hours or even years of learning new programs to achieve. Not to mention reclaiming the time to think and build the foundation of something more.
These days, I’m more excited about turning clients into creators, getting people to write their first prompts, and watching them unlock something they didn’t know they had. That’s more meaningful to me than crafting a pixel-perfect layout for a Fortune 500 company. I feel like I’m standing at the tip of the spear of a creative renaissance. I also see the other side, as the cost of creating trends toward zero, project rates will shrink, and the day-to-day production work most designers rely on will become just another feature inside ChatGPT. Designers who are still cashing big checks today may find themselves blindsided tomorrow when their clients realize the tools have caught up and surpassed the old way.
Despite the rapid advancement of AI and the decreasing cost of creative projects, I find myself feeling overwhelmingly optimistic (this most certainly has not been the case for me the past three months). This shift is compelling us as a creative community, to delve deeper, not just in our execution, but in our conceptual thinking. As AI handles more of the production, our unique human creativity becomes our most valuable asset. Embracing these tools and integrating them into our workflows isn’t just beneficial, it’s essential. By focusing on what makes us uniquely human (our ideas, perspectives, and emotions) we can harness AI to amplify our creativity and value rather than diminish it.
This is a weird moment to live through. The old rules are dissolving. The new ones are being written in real time.
Maybe I’ll be dead wrong about all this and you can laugh at me later. Either way, I’m all in.
