The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has raised concerns about a potential negative impact on jobs in creative fields, but a new analysis finds that those jobs aren’t disappearing even as AI reshapes creative work.
A report by Gallup examined a study from the Journal of Cultural Economics, which 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 gauge how exposed a given job’s tasks are to generative AI – such as what tasks a large language model could plausibly perform or assist with.
Within artistic professions, exposure to AI varied widely. For example, music directors and composers had an exposure score of about 0.7, which implied that a substantial portion of their tasks involve composition or production that AI tools may help draft or modify; 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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Among the artistic roles with less AI exposure were dancers, whose exposure score was about 0.04, while actors scored around 0.18, craft artists and choreographers were around 0.27 to 0.28. The primary work in these fields involves live presence, interpretation and physical skill that generative AI can’t easily substitute.
“The evidence does not show large negative effects when examining the impact of AI on jobs. Using 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 look broadly similar to those with lower exposure,” Gallup said. “The estimates are slightly positive, though they are not statistically distinguishable from zero.”
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The report noted that data around employment patterns was more mixed, with some highly exposed artistic occupations experiencing weaker job growth in 2023 relative to those with less exposure.
“Even so, the differences are modest and far from the widespread job losses that discussions of AI and job displacement often assume,” Gallup noted.
Census Bureau data from the American Community Survey also showed that artists in more AI-exposed occupations saw a modest rise in earnings in 2023 that faded somewhat in 2024. Around that period, total hours worked rose more clearly starting in 2022 and remained elevated through 2024.
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Data from the Gallup Workplace Panel showed that employees in artistic occupations reported somewhat higher AI use than the overall workforce, with about one-in-four saying they use AI frequently as compared with about one-in-five workers in the broader economy.
“Artists are more likely than other workers to report using AI for idea generation and creative exploration. They also report using it to automate small tasks, consolidate information and support collaboration. Artists are, not surprisingly, less likely to use AI for operational tasks such as customer interaction or equipment management,” Gallup wrote.
“These patterns suggest generative AI playing a role primarily 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 agency over their own careers by augmenting their ability to produce branding documents, craft outreach, and automate otherwise mundane tasks with travel and accommodation,” it added.
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