Getting replaced by AI 😑

The art director of one of the “big 5” companies I shoot for explained to me yesterday that their new marketing person is transitioning their lifestlye photography to be AI generated. So going forward, their social media and marketing collateral will be produced by a computer and feature ai models instead of actual humans. “You wouldn’t believe the quality”, I think were their words.

I’ve been worried for a while about this upheaval, and I guess … it’s getting real 😬. In some ways I get it. It’s cheaper. It’s less work. You don’t have to deal with coordinating photoshoots, purchasing props, worrying about models flaking, correcting in post… but jeez.

When I talk to people about this upheaval, they say Photography won’t be replaced because “ai can’t generate real emotion”, and “ai can’t capture real experiences”. But I see so many AI headshot apps and see such amazing quality come out of some of these products, I cant help but worry.

To clarify, I’m doing great for now and I can deal with the income ding this will cause. But as ai gets better… after 20 years as a professional photographer I’m starting to seriously wonder if I need to start thinking about a backup career

Have you had experiences like this? Any thoughts on how to hedge your bets against the behemoth at our f-stop?