AI Is a Tool, Not a Replacement

When AI first became widely available, it opened up a whirlwind of possibilities. Suddenly, you could create an image in seconds, get help writing something, generate a video, brainstorm ideas, or find information without spending hours searching. It felt like almost anything you could imagine was right at your fingertips.

And honestly, that part is pretty amazing.

But now, in 2026, I think we are starting to see the other side of it.

AI is no longer being used only as a tool to help when we don’t have enough time or enough hands. In many cases, it is being used to replace the work altogether. People are using AI to write books, design flyers, create videos, imitate celebrities, generate realistic photos, and produce content that can sometimes be difficult to distinguish from something created by a real person.

As someone who went to school for graphic design, this is where it becomes a little frustrating for me.

I learned how to draw, design, edit, illustrate, and create things from scratch. I learned why certain fonts work together, why spacing matters, how colors affect a design, how to create hierarchy, and how to make something visually communicate what it needs to communicate.

Now I’m watching people type a few words into AI, generate a flyer, and call it finished.

And yes…we can tell.

We see the distorted faces. We see the strange hands. We see the words that don’t quite make sense. We see the layouts that look almost identical to the last AI-generated flyer. And sometimes, we see information that is simply wrong because no one stopped to double-check it.

Even AI tells you that AI can make mistakes.

Humans make mistakes too, of course, but that is exactly why human judgment still matters. Someone still needs to look at the finished product and ask, “Does this actually make sense?”

I experienced this myself while creating a map for Camp Meeting this year. We were asked for it at the last minute, and there was no realistic way I was going to be able to illustrate the entire thing from scratch in the amount of time I had.

So yes, I used ChatGPT to help me.

And I’m not ashamed to say that.

But it took me around 15 attempts to get something even close to what I needed. Even after that, I still had to take it into Illustrator and Photoshop and make corrections myself. Sometimes one part would finally be correct, I would ask for another adjustment, and suddenly something that had already been fixed would be wrong again.

That experience actually reinforced how I believe AI should be used.

AI can assist the creative process, but it should not replace the creative process.

I use ChatGPT. I enjoy using ChatGPT. I use it to brainstorm, organize my thoughts, help me when I’m stuck, research ideas, and sometimes get a starting point when I don’t have enough time to begin completely from scratch.

But I don’t expect it to do my entire job for me.

There is still value in having a person behind the work.

A designer understands the organization they are designing for. They understand the audience. They know what information should stand out first and what should be secondary. They can recognize when something technically looks “fine” but still doesn’t feel right.

AI can generate something quickly, but quick and good are not always the same thing.

And I understand why people use it.

Hiring a designer costs money. AI is often cheaper and faster. When someone can generate something in a few minutes instead of paying someone to spend hours designing it, I understand why that option is tempting.

But there is also a reason designers charge for their work.

You aren’t only paying for the 30 minutes, two hours, or five hours it took them to create your design. You are paying for the years they spent learning how to create it well. You are paying for their experience, their eye, their creativity, their software, their revisions, and their ability to recognize problems that someone without that experience may never notice.

I try to keep my own design prices reasonable, but I also understand why designers with years of experience charge much more. Their expertise has value.

That is something I hope we don’t lose in our excitement over AI.

Technology has always changed the way people work, and AI is going to continue doing that. I don’t think the answer is to stop using it. I certainly don’t plan to.

The answer is to remember what it is supposed to be: a tool.

Let it help you brainstorm. Let it help when you are in a time crunch. Let it give you ideas. Let it speed up parts of your workflow. But don’t let convenience convince you that human creativity, experience, and judgment no longer matter.

Because when we remove the human completely, eventually everything starts to look the same.

Creativity is more than generating something that looks good at first glance. It is understanding why it works, who it is for, what it is trying to say, and how it makes someone feel.

AI can help us create.

But we still need people to make it meaningful.

-By the Communications Department