Okay, I’m just going to put it out there…
Has Ai had its day?
AI is everywhere right now. You’ve probably noticed it too. It’s in your social feeds, popping up in posts that all seem to have the same polished, hyper-detailed look. It’s in TV documentaries, quietly labeled as “AI generated scenes.” It’s filling our inboxes, Our news feeds. I’m sure even Trump hasn’t got up to some of the videos doing the rounds at the moment. The genie is well and truly out of the bottle. There’s no putting it back. But the real question is, just because we can use it everywhere, does that mean we should?
Lately, something feels off. Maybe you’ve felt it as well but couldn’t quite put your finger on it. A lot of event promotions and small business posts are starting to blur together. They’ve got that same layered look, overly detailed backgrounds, soft gradients, brushed panels tucked neatly behind bold headers. You’ll often see cartoon style versions of the business owner or their products, almost too perfect, too clean. And while it might look impressive at first glance, the message itself? It’s getting lost somewhere in all that noise.
It’s like everything is shouting visually, but saying less.
I’ve been thinking about this for a few days now. Maybe it’s because I’ve had too much time on my hands recently, recovering from a knee replacement gives you plenty of hours for scrolling and observing. And during one of those long stretches of doom scrolling, I started noticing something interesting. A few print shops and designers are pushing back. Some are even saying they won’t print AI-generated flyers or leaflets anymore.
At first, that might sound a bit extreme. But when you think about it, it actually makes sense.
A lot of AI-generated designs just aren’t built for print. They might look sharp on a screen, but they’re often not created at the right resolution. Colours aren’t set up in the correct print format, so what you see digitally won’t match what comes out on paper. Fonts can be another issue, they’re not always properly vectored, which means when you shrink them down, they lose clarity and start to blur. It’s the kind of thing you might not notice until you’re holding the final product and something just feels… off.
But beyond the technical side, there’s something else going on.
It’s about the human touch.
When you work with a graphic designer, you’re not just getting a finished image. You’re getting someone who listens, who understands what you’re trying to say, and who shapes the design around that. There’s a back and forth, a process of refining ideas, responding to feedback, and making something that actually feels like you. AI doesn’t really do that. It gives you something quick, something polished, but not necessarily something meaningful.
And maybe that’s where this quiet backlash is coming from.
People aren’t rejecting AI completely, they’re just starting to question how much of it they actually want. Because when everything starts to look the same, standing out becomes harder, not easier.
So maybe the real challenge now isn’t whether to use AI or not. Maybe it’s about knowing when to use it, and when to step back and let something more human take the lead.
