What Is AI Doing to Digital Creation?

Dylan Field says AI is lowering the floor for digital production, whether the work is code, motion, video, or design, so more people can take part and creation is more democratized. A few years ago at Config, the annual user conference, he said the ceiling would be raised by AI and people would do greater things. He now says that was wrong. The ceiling has stayed the same. AI is not raising the ceiling. Humans raise it when creatives and designers focus, invest their time, stay bold, and try to do something no one else has ever done before.

The choice is whether a mean or average result is enough, or whether the work has to show care and go beyond the minimum bar. In software design and product, the amount of software is growing exponentially, and App Store numbers follow that same exponential. Usage and utilization of apps are flat. People use the same amount of apps while the number of apps available is bigger than ever and still growing. Builders need to differentiate, and code is no longer the hard part because anyone can create code now.

Dylan Field says design is the new code, the layer above. A product has to stand out with a differentiated design, a point of view, and a good brand and marketing. He thinks the point of view is probably the part missed most. He calls the point of view the human part, and the part humans are uncomfortable having, because folks are scared to say something that is not consensus.