AI: is it actually going to put me out of a job?

If you’ve spent any time on the internet lately, you’ve seen the headlines. AI can now generate "perfect" portraits of people who don’t exist, swap out a cloudy sky for a sunset in three seconds, and even write a halfway decent caption for your Instagram post. Everybody is putting themselves in one of a thousand new trends and getting AI to generate them as a cartoon, riding a unicorn with a six pack.

As a photographer, I get asked about this a lot. Usually, it’s some version of: "Are you worried that AI is going to just take over your job?" "Why would I need you when I can just give Chat GPT a photo and it will turn it into a professional headshot for me?"

The short answer? No, I'm not pressed about it. But the reason why isn't because I'm a "tech-hater" or stuck in the dark ages and still using a flip phone (which btw if you do that props to you!). It's actually because I know exactly what AI can do, and more importantly, what it can never do.

The Practical Side: AI as the Modern Assistant

Let’s be real: AI is actually a pretty great tool when it’s used for the boring stuff. Organizing my shopping list, keeping my mountain of emails sorted, all that is work AI can and should handle for us.

In the photography and design world specifically, there are plenty of practical, "non-scary" use cases. For example, if I’m editing a beautiful gallery and I notice a giant red pimple that decided to show up on your forehead the morning of our shoot, I can use generative AI to remove it in seconds. In the past, that might have taken ten minutes of manual cloning but now, the tech handles the "cleanup" so I can focus on the art and make sure you get your photos back in a reasonable amount of time too.

AI is great for efficiency. It’s great for removing a distracting exit sign from the background or expanding the edges of a frame to fit a specific crop. It’s a digital assistant that helps me get the "clutter" out of the way so the soul of the photo can shine. So proof is RIGHT HERE that I'm not just a hater.

The Missing Piece: AI Can’t Capture a Memory

Here is where the "Expert AI" and the "Human Photographer" part ways.

You can type a prompt into a generator that says: "A mother laughing with her toddler in a sunlit kitchen, documentary style." And honestly? The image it spits out might look incredible. The lighting will be perfect. The colors will be vibrant. It might even look like you.

But it isn't your life.

When you look at that AI image, you don’t feel anything. You don’t remember the smell of the coffee brewing in the background. You don’t remember the weight of your child in your arms or the way they finally stopped crying and started giggling because you made a ridiculous face. When you look at that image in 5, 10, 30 years you aren't going to remember that moment cause it didn't happen.

AI generates content. Photographers capture moments.

Both Can Coexist

I don’t think we need to be anti-AI. It’s going to continue to change how we edit and how we manage the "business" side of things. But as long as humans still value real memories over perfect pixels and mountains of content, photographers will always have a place.

Until next time ;)

Michaela