Final f***ing FINAL v7.file was the most expensive part of my early career.
Not the software. Not the laptop. That file.
Somewhere on an old hard drive there's a folder of v1 to v7. Every one was called final. Every one followed a different mood of the same client.
When I started my graphic design business, a lot of my time went into design revisions for clients who didn't really know what they wanted from their brand, and weren't willing to pay to find out. I was funding their learning, in hours.
Most of the cost of a graphic design job isn't the design. It's working out what the client wants their brand to look like.
Now they can start with AI design tools. They can make all the mistakes they need to. Blue, then not blue, then the first one again. They can learn what they like, on their own time, at no cost to anyone.
The painful part hasn't gone away. It's moved to the other side of the table.
Honestly, I'd have loved that version of my early days as a designer.
Then, if the business works, it grows. A growing business has an owner whose time is worth more than the task. They know what they like now, but they don't have an afternoon to prompt a sixth variation of anything. They'd rather hand their brand to a designer and get it back right.
Everyone owns a calculator. Almost nobody does their own books.
The tool got easier. Someone still has to use it on behalf of someone else.
I'd bet maths went the same way. Easier arithmetic didn't remove the people who do it for you. It changed what they're hired for.
So here's my guess for graphic design: AI won't take the work. It'll take v1 to v6.
This is an opinion, not a forecast. I could be wrong.