Direct Labor Market Effects of Artificial Intelligence Assisted Applications Based on the Opinions of Illustrators and Company Managers: Hungarian Case Study

In the creative industry, the last six months have seen a remarkable and rapid change with the widespread availability of certain AI-based applications for the average user, such as the various Stable Diffusion image generators, the ControlNet that goes with them, and ChatGPT. In particular, the world of illustration, corporate design/design planning, translation, film production, copywriting, virtual education is all undergoing significant and irreversible change. In this article, we summarize what can be known about the impact of AI-assisted digital applications on the labour market for the illustration professionals. Based on exploratory research used in-depth interviews, opinions are markedly divided. Some see AI-assisted applications as a new opportunity, a rapid development of a hybrid toolkit to gain a competitive advantage. Others argue that they represent a threat to daily livelihoods and devalue hand-made creative work. According to business leaders, they can deliver significant cost savings without compromising on the level of quality expected, and on the contrary, they can enhance the user experience.