AI and the future of Media and Creative work: what changes, what stays human

Key facts

• On the ILO's 2025 index, graphic and multimedia designers score 0.49 out of 1, and advertising and marketing professionals and writers 0.55. Visual artists score 0.21 and musicians 0.28, in its lowest band, "not exposed". Global generative-AI task-exposure estimates; not a Malaysian forecast; not a job-security rating^[1].
• Employers in the World Economic Forum (WEF) survey put graphic designers among the fastest-declining jobs to 2030, a reversal from 2023, and UI and UX designers among the fastest-growing. Global employer expectation, published 2025^[2].
• In Anthropic's February 2025 data, arts, design, entertainment, sports and media tasks were 10.3% of Claude conversations, second only to computing. Anthropic usage data, not Malaysian demand^[3].
• We did not find a current Malaysia-specific study of AI and creative jobs. TalentCorp's 10-sector study, reported in August 2025, did not include the creative industries^[4].

Creative work is changing as AI tools learn to make images, sound and video as well as text. The ILO notes these models gained those abilities after 2023, and names multimedia among the leading adopters^[1]. Some creative tasks may change a lot and others hardly at all, so this page gives you questions to test with people who do the work.

For routes in, portfolios and courses, start with Media & Creative after SPM.

How to read this page

Observed means someone measured it. Projected means someone estimated the future, so we say who, when and for where. Projections are often wrong.

The scores come from the International Labour Organization (ILO). They estimate how much of an occupation's current tasks generative AI (tools that write, summarise or make images from a prompt) could potentially do, from 0 to 1^[1]. "Not exposed" is a technical label: most of the occupation's tasks scored consistently low for what generative AI can do today^[1]. It does not mean AI will never change the work, and it says nothing about Malaysian clients or pay. Exposure is not job loss either: the ILO says that depends on adoption and on whether workers get the chance to learn the tools^[1].

What is already happening (observed)

• People use one AI product for creative and marketing work. In February 2025, 10.3% of the Claude conversations Anthropic studied were arts, design, entertainment, sports and media tasks, the second-largest group after computing. Claude could not make images, so image work is under-counted^[3]. Anthropic usage data (Claude.ai conversations sorted into US job categories), not Malaysian demand.
• Marketing is mostly work; creative writing is mostly personal. In June 2026, Anthropic reported that 80% of conversations producing marketing content were work-related, while more than 80% of those producing creative writing were personal^[5]. Anthropic usage data from a sample it says is not representative.
• Malaysia. We did not find a current Malaysia-specific study that measures how agencies, studios or freelancers here use AI. Ask practitioners on Day 2 what they see.

What people project, and who says so

• Graphic designers, a change in view. Employers listed graphic designers among the fastest-declining and largest-declining jobs to 2030. In the 2023 edition they had been a moderately growing job, and the WEF says this first-time prediction may reflect generative AI's growing abilities. Global employer expectation, published 2025^[2].
• Designing for people. The same employers listed UI and UX designers, who design how apps and websites work for users, among the fastest-growing jobs. Global employer expectation, published 2025^[2].
• Skills employers name. 57% of employers counted creative thinking as a core skill for their workforce. Global employer expectation, published 2025^[2].
• Employers in Malaysia. 82% expected AI to transform their business by 2030, close to the global 86%; the WEF gives no separate Malaysian figures for creative industries. Expectation of employers in Malaysia in the WEF's global survey, published 2025^[2].

Task by task

These cards are our reading of the sources for a classroom exercise, not a forecast. A practitioner may disagree, and their reasons are worth hearing.

Design a logo, layout or social post

• What a person does: judges what fits the brand and checks the rights.
• What AI might assist: drafts and variations in seconds.
• What this source does not show: what Malaysian clients will pay for design now.

Write ad copy and captions

• What a person does: checks facts, tone, brand rules and how it reads in Bahasa Malaysia.
• What AI might assist: first drafts in several languages.
• What this source does not show: how many copywriting jobs change in Malaysia.

Turn a client brief into a campaign idea

• What a person does: finds out what the client really wants and sells the idea.
• What AI might assist: idea lists and mood boards.
• What this source does not show: anything about client trust, which no score measures.

Edit video and add subtitles

• What a person does: owns the story, pacing and music rights.
• What AI might assist: auto-captions and rough cuts.
• What this source does not show: how fast local studios adopt these tools.

Shoot photos or film on location

• What a person does: directs people, finds the light, is there.
• What AI might assist: the editing afterwards.
• What this source does not show: whether AI images replace some paid shoots.

Report a story

• What a person does: interviews people, checks facts, verifies an image or recording is real.
• What AI might assist: transcribing and summarising.
• What this source does not show: how Malaysian newsrooms are changing.

New tasks that are appearing

• Directing AI tools: writing prompts, choosing between outputs and correcting them.
• Checking AI drafts for brand rules, accuracy, bias and copyright before anything is published.
• Telling clients what AI made and what you made. Malaysia's National Guidelines on AI Governance and Ethics, issued by MOSTI in September 2024, are voluntary and include transparency and accountability among seven principles^[6].
• Verifying whether an image, video or voice recording is genuine.

This list is our reading of the sources above, not an official one.

What stays human: hypotheses to test

These are practitioner hypotheses to test, not findings. The sources do not show that any of these tasks will stay unchanged.

• Who judges what this audience will find funny, moving or respectful?
• Does the client relationship, and their trust in you, keep the work?
• Does a live performance or hand-made piece keep its value?
• Who answers for the rights and the truth of what gets published?

A business question sits behind all of these: if AI makes drafts faster, clients may expect to pay less for them. Ask a practitioner how they now charge.

What this means for you

• Show your thinking, not just finished pieces. A portfolio with the brief, sketches, versions and what you changed after feedback shows judgement.
• Learn the AI tools and keep records. Note which tool made what, so you can tell a client and check the rights.
• Build client skills. Listening to a brief, pitching and handling feedback are social work that a portfolio alone does not show.
• Look at where design meets people and data. Employers project growth for UI and UX designers, and name creative thinking as a core skill (global employer expectation, published 2025)^[2].
• Watch how Malaysian clients start asking about AI use and disclosure, and whether a Malaysian study of creative jobs appears.

Your next step

1. On Day 2, choose the Media and Creative taster (a 30-second campaign concept) or, if your cohort runs four labs, the Design and Create lab. Do one part with AI and one without, and note what you changed in the AI version. Read the Design and Create lab brief first.
2. Ask the practitioner: "Which part of your week has AI changed most, and which part not at all?" Write the answer in "The future" section of your Future Map.

About the evidence

ILO scores (a global generative-AI task-exposure estimate; not a Malaysian forecast; not a job-security rating), on a 0 to 1 scale with the ILO's band^[1]:

• Web and multimedia developers 0.60, gradient 4
• Advertising and marketing professionals 0.55, gradient 3
• Authors and related writers 0.55, gradient 3
• Journalists 0.54, gradient 3
• Graphic and multimedia designers 0.49, gradient 2
• Advertising and public relations managers 0.39, minimal exposure
• Photographers 0.39, gradient 1 (some tasks highly exposed, most not)
• Film, stage and related directors and producers 0.37, minimal exposure
• Broadcasting and audio-visual technicians 0.35, minimal exposure
• Actors 0.31, minimal exposure
• Musicians, singers and composers 0.28, not exposed
• Visual artists 0.21, not exposed

The bands run from "not exposed" and "minimal exposure" up to gradients 1 to 4, the most exposed^[1]. The ILO built its scores from a survey of 1,640 workers in Poland, rounds of discussion with international experts, and an AI assistant built on that input. Every task counts equally, and the ILO says local factors its global study does not cover can speed up or limit the change^[1]. ILO occupation groups do not map one-to-one onto Malaysian job titles, and we do not claim a direct mapping.

WEF figures are expectations from a survey of more than 1,000 employers across 55 economies, published January 2025^[2]. Anthropic figures are its own usage data, not Malaysian demand. The method behind the task cards is in Tasks, not job titles.

For facilitators

Use the task cards as a starting list for the Day 2 AI task X-ray and ask the practitioner to correct them before learners use them. Each learner supports one card with a source and challenges one assumption. Stop any conclusion that a job is "safe" or "dead": the evidence here does not support either.