TL;DR

A graphic designer in East Yorkshire says his workload has thinned as small businesses generate artwork themselves rather than commissioning it. The BBC also spoke to one of the customers making that choice, a pub landlady who now produces nearly all her own social media. The Advertising Association’s chief executive acknowledges rapid change while insisting the rules still bind.

Both sides of the same decision

Danny Williams recalls a market where designers were sought after when he began 15 years ago. His own position now is blunter: he is getting less work. He understands the reasoning, too — for smaller firms in a tight economy, he says, “the funding isn’t there for graphic design or big media packs”.

What makes the piece unusually useful is that the buyer speaks as well. Claire Howlett runs The King’s Head in Pollington and handles her advertising herself. Her calculation is not sentimental: she wants the best, cheapest and most convenient option, and she has concluded the available tools are fit for purpose. A designer might follow later, if the business grows.

Williams accepts the trade needs to adapt but thinks the current output is wearing thin, arguing that generated posters have grown repetitive and that “most people are sick of seeing them”. His bet is that the market swings back, on trust rather than taste.

The regulatory floor

Stephen Woodford, who leads the Advertising Association, framed the sector’s aim as capturing AI’s efficiencies without surrendering creative standards, public trust or ethical safeguards. He called the technology enormously capable while noting there are things it cannot do.

His practical warning concerns compliance. UK advertising is heavily regulated, material must be decent, honest and truthful, and a business publishing on its own behalf carries that responsibility whether or not a professional was involved.

Looking forward

Set this against the Design Council’s finding last week that AI would not replace designers — a conclusion drawn largely from pre-AI employment data. One dataset says the profession is safe; one designer and one publican describe substitution already happening at the bottom of the market.

Both can be true. Displacement at the SME end does not register in headline employment figures for years, which is exactly why the anecdote arrives before the statistics do.