Artwork tools are starting to operate themselves.
Adobe has put an AI assistant into Photoshop, Illustrator and InDesign. Their examples include Illustrator generating 50 versioned files from a spreadsheet and InDesign applying brand updates across layouts. Both can now run preflight checks, including print readiness.
All of this is in beta, but that is production work, and it still leaves an audit gap. Someone has to review the output and check it matches the spec, and that takes people who know how the work should be done without these new tools.
The push to use AI is strong, but the risk is the same one that automation has always had. A slightly wrong instruction gets applied to every file at once. The difference now is that you can prompt in human language and the results are faster. Mistakes can also be fixed in the same way, and each pass could improve the process.
I haven’t had the chance to properly explore these tools yet, and some of my bookings do not allow AI assistance to produce the work. Even so, I can see parts of the process that could be automated where the barrier to entry used to be high. I can also see where automation could cause problems.
If part of your artwork came from an AI assistant, who would check it against the spec?