Is illustration dead? Creatives weigh in on AI and the future of commercial art

Welcome to the latest in our advice series, Dear Boom. This week’s dilemma strikes at the heart of every illustrator’s fears right now.

“Everywhere I look, someone’s declaring illustration dead,” writes an anonymous creative. “AI is faster. Clients are cheaper. Trends move at a horrifying pace. I’ve been watching my inbox dry up for months, and it’s been the worst year on record in over a decade. I’m wondering if I’ve backed the wrong horse. Be honest… is illustration on life support, or are we all just losing our heads?”

When we asked the Creative Boom community this question on Instagram, the response was immediate and passionate… but perhaps not in the way you’d expect. Rather than panic, most contributors offered fierce optimism mixed with clear-eyed pragmatism about the challenges ahead.

Pushback against AI panic

The most emphatic response came from conceptual illustrator Ollie Hirst. “It’s absolutely not dead!” he insists. “That’s just what big tech wants you to believe. Clients who buy into generative AI imagery have already seen huge backlash. So I say: if you see a brand or publication using AI in place of an illustrator, call it out and start a conversation. That’s how we should all take a stand.”

Perhaps another way of pushing back is to share our success stories. Brits, especially, aren’t keen on doing this for cultural reasons. But maybe it’s time some of us started doing so, to help counter the doommongering. Illustrators like Paul Ryding, who’s happy to share that his 25th year in freelancing has been his best to date.

“I hate to be that guy, but I’ve never been busier in my career,” he says. “I’ve been turning down projects due to the volume of work. The big change I made was to react against AI rather than adopt it. I push my offer of ‘handcrafted’, ‘human-made’, and ‘organic’ to clients. I remind them that clients may not care where their illustrations come from, but audiences do.”

This positivity is echoed by Tom Robinson, co-founder of illustration agency Handsome Frank. “Honestly, we are the busiest we’ve ever been right now,” he reports. “We’re definitely not dead over here. Keep aiming high, illustrators of the world.”

Grim reality for some

That doesn’t, of course, mean things are rosy everywhere. Despite having worked with big clients like Adobe, Shake Shack and Universal, Sasha Lsrblst has been feeling the pinch in 2025. “I’ve always struggled to find clients, but lately, it’s even harder,” he reports. “For the first time in my 16 years as an illustrator, I’m seriously thinking about doing something else.”

Illustrator and former Adobe design evangelist Kyle Webster corroborates this outlook. “I went to six conferences in the last year, and most freelance artists without representation I met are having a similar experience,” he shares. “Not very optimistic.”

Aside from the binary issue of getting or not getting work, there are structural issues in the market, too. Lisa Sheehan is busier than ever but observes, “The jobs have changed a bit. I have noticed the budgets have gone down or never gone up. Fifteen years ago, I was commissioning cover art for around £450; I am offered some covers for £350 now, which is just so low after you take off agency fees.”

Watercolour illustrator Willa Gebbie tells a similar tale. “The kind of clients I’m getting has really changed,” she says. “Budgets are cut, agencies have lost contracts, and publications have closed. Digital magazines have shifted to social media content, which is often too quick and reactive for my style. But I’m positive that there is a space for me with clients that appreciate craft and purpose.”

The human advantage

One big theme that emerges is how AI’s threat has clarified what makes illustrators valuable. As visual art director Amber Day puts it: “My clients have been much more focused on message and voice than drawing style. Styles can be replicated easier than ever now, but the one thing AI can’t copy is your story and your lived human experience.”

Mohamed Danawi, founder and creative director of illustration agency Illozoo and professor at the Savannah College of Art and Design, believes this is sparking a renaissance in real-life illustration. “Cheap clients use AI, and it’s tacky, problematic, unreliable and unpredictable,” he says. “What I’m noticing is the increase in requesting illustrators with ideas, with storytelling skills, with conceptual problem-solving ability.”

Illustrator and designer Nikki Scioscia‘s experience seems to dovetail here. “I’m working on a series of illustrations for an emerging business right now,” she shares. “And they told me, ‘It’s important to us that our clients can tell this work was made by a human hand.’ So I’ve been sketching with pencil again, using a lightbox to scale up, inking on paper, and having more fun with this project than when I used to try to make my line work look perfect.”

What this all means

If you’re struggling to find work right now, it’s natural to feel like the entire profession is dying. But book cover illustrator Nosheen Ahmed offers a sense of perspective. “Every career goes through cycles,” she says. “Before illustration, I worked as a dentist; a job most people would call ‘stable.’ But even there, we had huge highs and lows. Change is just a natural evolution of society. Industries move, tools change, trends accelerate. It doesn’t mean the craft is dying. It means it’s reshaping.”

The overwhelming consensus from working illustrators, in short, is that reports of illustration’s death are greatly exaggerated. At the same time, though, the field is undeniably changing. Which means those illustrators who are not just surviving, but thriving, are typically doing at least some of these things:

• Emphasising their humanity, process and unique voice
• Actively educating clients about the value of human creativity
• Diversifying income streams and client types
• Focusing on conceptual thinking and storytelling, not just execution
• Building and deepening relationships with clients who value authenticity

In other words, illustration is not dying. But like every other creative field right now, it is being forced to evolve and prove its worth in new ways. The illustrators who understand their value lies not in their hands alone, but in their humanity, experience and irreplicable perspective, are the ones who will thrive in this brave new world.