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Professionals · code 2166

Graphic and multimedia designers

AI can make a hundred logos in a minute. Knowing which one is right is still design.

The ILO lumps product designers in with graphic and multimedia designers, the closest match, so it shares graphic design's score. AI could take a fair chunk of making images and forming concepts; working with clients is mostly out of its reach.

What they actually do (and what else they get called)

Graphic and multimedia designers design visual and audiovisual content for the communication of information using print, film, electronic, digital and other forms of visual and audio media. They create graphics, special effects, animation or other visual images for use in computer games, movies, music videos, print media and advertisements. Tasks include - (a) determining the objectives and constraints of the design brief by consulting with clients and stakeholders; (b) undertaking research and analysing functional communication requirements; (c) formulating design concepts for the subject to be communicated; (d) preparing sketches, diagrams, illustrations and layouts to communicate design concepts; (e) designing complex graphics and animation to satisfy functional, aesthetic and creative requirements of the design brief; (f) creating two-dimensional and three-dimensional images depicting objects in motion or illustrating a process, using computer animation or modelling programmes; (g) negotiating design solutions with clients, management, sales and production staff; (h) selecting, specifying or recommending functional and aesthetic materials and media for publication, delivery or display; (i) detailing and documenting the selected design for production; (j) supervising or carrying out production in the chosen media. Examples of the occupations classified here: - Animator - Commercial artist - Computer games designer - Digital artist - Graphic designer - Illustrator - Multimedia designer - Publication designer - Website designer Some related occupations classified elsewhere: - Interior architect - 2161 - Multimedia developers - 2513 - Web developers - 2513 - Visual artists - 2651 - Interior designers - 3432

  • stop-motion animator
  • video designer
  • art director
  • special effects artist
  • gambling, betting, and lottery games designer
  • animation layout artist
  • 3D modeller
  • digital games designer
  • illustrator
  • graphic designer
  • digital artist
  • animator
  • digital media designer
  • desktop publisher

Job titles from the EU's ESCO list. Search for any of them on the jobs page and you'll end up here.

51 / 100

Changing significantly

AI could do a real share of the everyday tasks. The job is changing shape, not vanishing.

Not the odds you keep your job. It's how much of the everyday work still needs a person, out of 100.

← Robot's turf Human's turf →

The ILO's official verdict: Exposed: Gradient 2

375 of 427 for holding up against AI

Why this score?

The ILO rated each of this job's 10 tasks for how much of it AI could do. They average 49.3 out of 100, so it holds up at 100 − 49.3 = 50.7.

That's the whole sum. No black box, no secret sauce: you can check it against the ILO's study. ILO group “Exposed: Gradient 2”: A good share of the tasks are affected.

This job rates 23.3 out of 100 for how hands-on it is. The score above only looks at AI tools, not robots, but for work this far from the physical that matters less.

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Man v Bot · compare

Who holds up better?

Graphic and multimedia designers 51

v

Go on, try your partner's job. Or your sibling's. We won't tell.

Man v Bot

Where the bot helps, and where the human wins

Bot

What AI takes

The routine stuff. You may not miss it.

  • Concepts and sketches.
  • Illustrations and animation.
  • Layouts and production files.

Man

What people still do better

Judgement, trust and skilled hands. Hard to download.

  • Understanding the brief.
  • Taste and judgement.
  • Working with clients.

Both

What's arriving

New work that only exists because the AI does.

  • Directing AI image tools.
  • Brand consistency across AI content.
  • Motion and interactive design.

Written by a human, from the ILO's task ratings below. Yes, we see the irony. Read it as one person's take.

Meet your two rivals

They're not the same machine. AI software can only reach the parts of a job done on a screen or in words. A chatbot can't climb a ladder. A robot might, one day, if it doesn't fall off.

The AI

Lives in a screen. Never had to fix a boiler.

Threat level: Medium

49 could do without you

It could take over some of the work, and help with more. It could help with 64 of 100.

The robot

The wildcard. Has hands, still working out stairs.

How much it matters here: Lower

23 how hands-on

Not much of this job needs hands, so the robot can sit this one out.

So could a robot do the physical part?

Less than half of this job is hands-on. Robots still matter, but for a smaller part of the work, so we don't sort it any further.

Robots hate fiddly work in awkward spaces. On that measure, this job scores 23 out of 100. The higher it is, the longer the robot waits.

23 How
hands-on
23 How fiddly
and cramped

Kind of hands-on work Less than half hands-on

The small print

They aren't a robot score, and nothing on this page is. Nobody measures how far robots have got well enough to put a number on it. These are the closest thing we have: how hands-on the job is, and how much fiddly, cramped work it takes, which is what Frey and Osborne found hardest for machines.

From O*NET, averaged across 2 US jobs .

finger skill 35.7 · hand skill 30.4 · cramped spaces 1.3 · averaged · rule: hands-on under 50

estimated O*NET 31.0 BLS occupational crosswalk chain ISCO-08 to 2010 SOC (Aug 2012, rev. Jun 2015); 2010 to 2018 SOC (Nov 2017); O*NET-SOC 2019 taxonomy data 0.8-observed-use measures chosen by Frey & Osborne (2017) · the grouping is a sorting, not a measurement

The job, task by task

Every job is really a bundle of tasks. Here's this one unpacked, with how much of each AI could do, out of 100. The score is the average, and averages can hide a lot.

AI's favourite task here scores 61, against an average of 49. The bigger the gap, the more lopsided the job: some of it wide open to AI, some of it barely touched.

  1. 61

    Creating two-dimensional and three-dimensional images depicting objects in motion or illustrating a process, using computer animation or modelling programmes

    Medium
  2. 59

    Formulating design concepts for the subject to be communicated

    Medium
  3. 56

    Preparing sketches, diagrams, illustrations and layouts to communicate design concepts

    Medium
  4. 55

    Detailing and documenting the selected design for production

    Medium
  5. 53

    Undertaking research and analysing functional communication requirements

    Medium
  6. 52

    Designing complex graphics and animation to satisfy functional, aesthetic and creative requirements of the design brief

    Medium
  7. 42

    Selecting, specifying or recommending functional and aesthetic materials and media for publication, delivery or display

    Low
  8. 41

    Determining the objectives and constraints of the design brief by consulting with clients and stakeholders

    Low
  9. 38

    Supervising or carrying out production in the chosen media.

    Low
  10. 37

    Negotiating design solutions with clients, management, sales and production staff

    Low

10 tasks · the High to Very Low labels are the ILO's

from the source Working Paper 140, Generative AI and Jobs 2025 index data 0.8-observed-use

Sidekick or replacement?

A tool that makes you faster is a very different thing from one that does the task while you watch. Jobs and Skills Australia measured the two separately, which is handy.

AI helps you
64
AI does it for you
49

Sidekick wins, by 15 points.

How good a match is this?

One Australian job matches, but only partly: not everyone in it does this job. Treat the numbers as a rough guide.

estimated Our Gen AI Transition (Gen AI Capacity Study) September 2025 detailed data release data 0.8-observed-use matched to Australian jobs 2324

Meanwhile, in real life…

Everything else here is about what AI could do. This is what people actually did. When they asked Claude for help with this kind of work, did they hand the whole task over, or roll their sleeves up and work through it together?

Out of every 100 conversations

70
30

worked through it together handed it over

The small print

Anthropic publishes this about its own product, and it doesn't feed into any score here. These are people who use Claude, not workers in general, so little use here doesn't mean AI can't reach the job. This job makes up 1.11% of the conversations.

The data is sorted by US job, and this one matches 2 of them. We've combined them, counting each by how often it comes up in the conversations, so the busiest one counts most.

These two add up to 100. The bars elsewhere on the page don't, because each is scored on its own, so we don't put them side by side.

observed use Anthropic Economic Index release 2026-06-26, period beginning 2026-05-01 data 0.8-observed-use 2026-05-01 · Anthropic, about its own product

So, should graphic designers be worried?

Short answer: not worried, but paying attention. The job is changing.

Yes, much of the work is changing. Animation, concepts, sketches, documentation, research and complex graphics are rated Medium; materials, briefs, production and negotiation are Low. Generative AI is hitting routine design hard; taste, briefs and client work matter more.

Worth remembering: we score tasks, not jobs. When AI takes on a task, the job usually reshuffles around it rather than vanishing.

Where this job could lead

How are the neighbours doing?

There are 92 jobs in the “Professionals” family, averaging 61. This one is below the family average.

Pit this against any other job →

A closer look

2 of our written profiles share this one code, because the international list can't tell those jobs apart.