AI in the design world: problematic or practical?
How AI is Changing the Design, PR, and Marketing Landscape
It’s hard to go a day without hearing about AI - the complications, controversies, and creative possibilities it brings to every corner of industry. With generative tools now built into many of our go-to platforms, it seems like there’s an AI-powered assistant for everything: editing, summarising, designing. Whether helpful or disruptive, the technology is becoming impossible to ignore.
But not everyone is jumping on board.
Alongside rapid adoption, there’s a wave of hesitancy. Particularly in response to the government’s proposed changes to copyright law, with the hopeful goal of attracting the big names in AI to the UK. The proposal would allow tech firms to include copyrighted works without permission to develop new and improved software, unless the owner specifcally opts out in advance. Helen Brocklebank, chief executive of luxury industry group Walpole has raised concerns on behalf of the 250 brands the group oversees, suggesting that the changes will “undermine creative integrity”, continuing:
“Global luxury brands invest in the UK for a wide range of reasons including its strong creative industries, stable business environment and supportive legal framework. The proposed government approach risks undermining this framework and the creative industries that rely on it.”
More recently, leading figures across various creative industries - from artists to songwriters and even the Royal Shakespeare Company - have penned a letter to Downing Street, expressing their concerns over the suggested changes. The amended bill now sits with The House of Lords, and we await the next update…
So, does AI help or hinder our workflow? And how exactly is it reshaping our stomping ground - the design world?
We’ve explored four ways we’ve seen artificial intelligence seep into the day-to-day, but we don’t imagine this will be the last time we touch on the subject:
1. Connected Worlds, Subtle Shifts
This year’s Fuorisalone theme, Connected Worlds, was described as:
“A vision that promotes participatory generative design, celebrating the art of engagement through design and forms of artificial intelligence.”
As mentioned in our latest Journal post, most brands seemed to take a gentle approach to this theme. Rather than bold declarations, we noticed subtle nods to technological progress, often woven into discussions of sustainability or heritage craftsmanship. A few brands did embrace the challenge head-on, blending innovation with tradition - usually in service of reducing waste or their carbon footprint.
2. Design & manufacturing
AI is being integrated from the very beginning of the design process - and often for good reason.
Tools like Midjourney and Adobe Firefly help brands to visualise early-stage ideas during team brainstorms. This allows for quicker feedback loops and alignment with brand identity. Rather than starting from scratch, designers are now refining AI-generated outputs, adding a layer of taste, brand cohesion, and originality. This is leading to a shift in the role of the designer, often overseeing and refining outputs, imbuing them with a new skillset - curation and editing.
However, AI struggles with true novelty, meaning human intuition and originality still hold immense value, and a premium.
These platforms can also help expand a product line across categories once a core prototype is finalised, streamlining the design cycle.
That said, there are challenges to navigate:
Intellectual property concerns: AI-generated designs may inadvertently use elements from copyrighted works, and the use of these is legally ambiguous.
Creative dilution: The more brands use similar tools, the more risk there is of homogenised visual content.
Value of originality: If AI becomes the norm, truly original, human-generated creativity becomes a rarer and more vital currency.
The key is to ensure that the chosen platform is being used to benefit rather than replace product creators, who have specialist knowledge that is invaluable.
3. Content creation
From ads to editorials to social posts, AI-generated content is on the rise - and public response is mixed.
Take Levi’s, which trialled AI-generated model imagery to boost diversity. Admirable intent, but some questioned why real models weren’t hired (and paid) instead. Similarly, Victoria Beckham’s launch campaign for The Dorian relied on AI to integrate the bag in post-production. Why not showcase the product organically within the different settings photographed? It feels as though perhaps production might have been delayed but the shoot booked and non-refundable…
We understand the pressures. Brands need a constant stream of fresh content. AI tools offer cost-effective alternatives to multiple location shoots. But the issue of transparency looms large. Increasingly, there’s a call for brands to disclose when AI is used in their content.
A recent PRovoke Media study found:
40% of American consumers say their opinion of a brand would worsen if they knew it used AI.
So, how do brands meet ever-growing content demands without exhausting budgets - or leaning too heavily on AI?
That’s an open question, and we’re curious to hear your thoughts. Do you have any tips to share?
4. PR & Marketing
There’s no doubt AI can be a time-saver in our world - especially when managing multiple platforms, formats, and audiences.
At last month’s Canva Create 2025 keynote, we were seriously impressed. Canva already ranks high on our list of favourite platforms, and its new AI-powered features are a game-changer:
Sheets: Beautifully formatted spreadsheets for everything from to-do lists to client budgets.
Magic Studio at Scale: Repurpose one piece of content across platforms: from a UK Instagram grid post, to a Pinterest video ad in the US, to a website homepage banner.
Mixed-format documents: Pull together press comms, social media ideas, CRM strategies, and web design in one seamless file.
New coding and image tools: We're still exploring these, and likely won’t have much reason to rely on the image creation tool, but excited to see what's possible.
And while we’re big believers in the power of well-crafted writing, platforms like ChatGPT have earned a place in our toolkit - for brainstorming, building out themes, or unlocking that elusive extra paragraph when ideas run dry.
What we’d like to avoid, however, is complete dependence.
The one area where it could benefit us in the communications world, day-to-day, is the use of AI to analyse data. In a recent talk with Positive Luxury, Sarah George, the Content Editor from edie Communications, explained that she is seeing the increased use of AI tools to benefit and enhance our working lives.
From software that allows us to dissect PR coverage and social media success, to more granular breakdowns that can help companies improve efficiencies internally to allow them to focus on the stuff that really matters, the rise in this approach can offer significant benefits to companies. If used correctly, our industry can go back to what it loves - creativity, innovation and materiality - rather than spreadsheets and analytics.
A Word on Learning
Miranda recently attended Onclusive on the Road: AI, Impact & The Future of Comms, which featured great insights from comms leaders and media editors, including the Former Director of Comms for the Liberal Democrats, the Senior Social Media Editor at the Telegraph, and spokespersons from a few brands and agencies in the UK.
The top benefits of AI for marketeers and PR specialists discussed included:
Faster reporting: Compiling a month’s (or a year’s) worth of data becomes significantly quicker, and likely more accurate too.
Better analysis: AI can reveal patterns we might not spot in media outreach and campaign success, and provide actionable focuses for the year ahead.
Campaign ideation: Ask for five campaign or event thought-starters, then refine them as a team to tailor the idea to specific client needs.
Above all, most of the panelists agreed that the goal is to become more efficient, without removing personalisation and creativity from the process.
However, one comment really stuck: a panelist admitted that LinkedIn posts for clients - and sometimes even CEOs of these businesses - are being generated entirely by interns plugging in topics on ChatGPT.
This raises two issues:
Loss of authenticity – LinkedIn, as a people-first platform, should be personal and social.
Missed learning opportunities – As junior staff, we learn to cater our written content for different audiences.
We may be biased as an agency that loves putting pen to paper (or fingers onto keyboards…) but it’s so rewarding for us learning to adapt and create content for new clients, each different spokesperson for our brands, for specific media titles and audiences.
If you skip that learning and rely solely on AI, what happens when the platform is unavailable? Or when a new agency demands handwritten proposals? These comms might require you to align with a house style, or add a personal touch of your own. Understanding how to write with a specific audience in mind is crucial, and the best agencies and in-house teams will teach junior staff how to improve this aspect of their work.
In Closing...
We’re still learning. We’ve bookmarked courses - great timing for OpenAI to launch the AI Academy! - and are testing new platforms all the time. Our view? AI can absolutely enhance our work - but shouldn’t replace the creativity, empathy, and human insight that define great communications.