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The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has raised concerns about a potential negative impact on jobs in the creative industries, but a new analysis shows that these jobs will not disappear even as AI changes creative work again.
A Gallup report examined a study from the Journal of Cultural Economics that found little evidence that generative AI has broadly reduced artists’ earnings, based on data from the Gallup Workforce Panel and federal labor market data.
The analysis used a scoring system from a 2024 Occupational Exposure Index to measure how exposed the tasks of a given job are to generative AI – such as which tasks a large language model could plausibly perform or support.
Inside artistic professionsexposure to AI varied widely. For example, music directors and composers had an exposure score of around 0.7, implying that a substantial portion of their duties involve composition or production that AI tools can help draft or adapt; while special effects artists and animators had a score of 0.54 and disc jockeys, art directors and other producers and directors were around 0.5.
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The analysis found that AI is not causing the loss of artistic jobs, even though it plays a role in the tasks for some roles. (recipe-bg/Getty Images)
Among the artistic roles with less exposure to AI were dancers, whose exposure score was around 0.04, while actors scored around 0.18, craft artists and choreographers around 0.27 to 0.28. The most important work in these areas involves live presence, interpretation, and physical skills that generative AI cannot easily replace.
“The evidence shows no major negative effects when examining the impact of AI on employment. Based on employment and wage statistics from the Bureau of Labor Statistics between 2017 and 2024, earnings trends for artistic occupations with higher exposure to generative AI “broadly resemble those with lower exposure,” Gallup said. “The estimates are somewhat positive, although statistically indistinguishable from zero.”
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Creative workers in some artistic professions are more exposed to AI tools than others. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
The report noted that data on employment patterns was more mixed, with some featuring very prominent artistic professions weaker job growth in 2023 compared to those with less exposure.
“Still, the differences are modest and far from the widespread job losses that discussions about AI and job loss often assume,” Gallup said.
Census Bureau data from the American Community Survey also found that artists in professions more related to AI are seeing modest growth increase in income in 2023 this has decreased somewhat in 2024. Around that period, the total number of hours worked increased more clearly from 2022 and remained at a high level until 2024.
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AI tools can help creative workers with certain tasks in the editing process, such as editing audio or video. (FNC)
Data from the Gallup Workplace Panel found that workers in artistic professions reported slightly higher AI use than the overall workforce, with about one in four saying they use AI often, compared to about one in five workers in the broader economy.
“Artists are more likely than other employees to report using AI idea generation and creative exploration. They also report using it to automate small tasks, consolidate information, and support collaboration. Not surprisingly, artists are less likely to use AI for operational tasks such as customer interaction or equipment management,” Gallup wrote.
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“These patterns suggest that generative AI has a particular role to play in the early stages of creative work – helping artists experiment with ideas, iterate quickly, and organize parts of the creative workflow. Generative AI could also enable artists to have more control over their own careers by increasing their ability to produce branding documents, create outreach, and otherwise automate mundane tasks involving travel and accommodation,” it added.
