

Creatives who embrace AI image tech will be the ones who control its impact
Jun 9, 2025
Paramark News Desk

Credit: Outlever
Key Points
AI image generation offers both opportunities and challenges for marketers and designers.
Nicole Leffer, CMO AI Advisor, discusses the importance of creatives adapting to AI to remain relevant in their fields.
Recent advancements in AI image generation have significantly improved the quality and usability of tools for professional work.
Ethical use of AI in art is essential, with a focus on respecting artists' intellectual property and maintaining creative integrity.
The cat is out of the bag with AI, and it’s not going back. Creatives have a choice: be afraid and let it potentially destroy your career, or embrace it, learn it, and become the person who can control it.

Nicole Leffer
CMO AI Advisor
,
A. Catalyst, LLC
For creatives, AI image generation is both muse and menace. It’s simultaneously handing unprecedented power to marketers and designers, while also stoking existential fears about job displacement and the future of human creativity.
Nicole Leffer, CMO and AI Advisor for DTC B2C as well as B2B and SaaS brands, helps marketing teams navigate the disruption. Though the technology is moving fast, in her view, there’s still plenty of room for creatives to lead—if they’re willing to adapt.
Now or never: "The cat is out of the bag with AI, and it’s not going back," says Leffer. "Creatives have a choice: be afraid and let it potentially destroy your career, or embrace it, learn it, and become the person who can control it." Owning the change—not resisting it—is what separates those who stay in the game from those who get swept off the board.
A huge leap forward: Leffer was immediately struck by the capabilities of recent AI image generation updates coming out of Google i/o. Having used earlier iterations like DALL-E, she found the improvements—especially with anything involving text or realistic-looking photography—"just absolutely huge." For marketers, the upgrade is more than cosmetic: The tools are now "significantly more useful for so many use cases," producing images that finally feel fit for professional work.
From hieroglyphics to high-fidelity: "You don't understand where we were," Leffer says, reflecting on how quickly the technology has evolved. "It was not that long ago that it looked like Egyptian hieroglyphics if you tried to ask it to write text." That kind of progress has made today’s tools genuinely exciting (and far more usable!) for real-world marketing needs.
Learning to walk: Despite the leaps forward, Leffer is pragmatic about the current limitations. "It's still not 100% perfect. There are issues that come up. It's still baby technology," she says. Users might notice quirks—like when "it cuts off the sides of your images" or the text gets "a little bit confused." And while it's now "a million times better for infographics," it's still not always the ideal choice.
The human guide: Leffer sees skilled creatives not as casualties of AI, but as its most effective collaborators. "The more you understand design—the vocabulary, the ability to describe it, the education, the eye—you can get 10 times better results out of it than someone who doesn’t have that," she explains. The opportunity lies in synergy. "There's definitely going to be a really amazing space for the creatives that can learn how to communicate with the tools to bring that same creative vision to life." Their value will come from "directing and guiding and taking advantage of how cool the technology is," says Leffer. "Companies still want the human, but assisted by AI to speed up the process."
The more you understand design—the vocabulary, the ability to describe it, the education, the eye—you can get 10 times better results out of it than someone who doesn’t have that.

Nicole Leffer
CMO AI Advisor
,
A. Catalyst, LLC
Respect the brush: When it comes to the ethics of AI-generated art, Leffer draws a clear line. "I would never use a real artist's name. That's a line for me," she says. "I would never give it a real artist's image myself and say, 'Create me something in the style of this real artist's image', unless I commissioned the piece." To her, that crosses into "explicitly taking a specific person's IP." The distinction, she explains, lies in how all artists learn: "Every artist learned from seeing other art and studying other art. This is the AI equivalent of an artist learning their craft," says Leffer.
Reality check: The power of these tools forces a hard look at their impact on creative professions. "I won't sugarcoat—it is scary for creators and graphic designers," Leffer admits. "I don't think it's replacing that yet, but I understand the fear," she says. "It's going to have a huge impact on those kinds of jobs." At the same time, she believes some creative roles will remain secure—especially those rooted in reality. "I don't think we're ever going to get away from having photojournalists—people who document reality."
Related articles

AI
Plotting the end of traditional departmental silos as AI reshapes marketing orgs
Jun 29, 2025
Paramark News Desk

AI
How GenAI is taking the 'voodoo' out of e-com with simple, scalable fixes for traditional CRO
Jun 27, 2025
Paramark News Desk

AI
As AI content explodes, trust becomes the new gold
Jun 25, 2025
Paramark News Desk

AI
Why brand and community are the last true bastions of competitive edge in the era of AI's
Jun 24, 2025
Paramark News Desk
Load More

Solutions
© 2025 Paramark, Inc.

Creatives who embrace AI image tech will be the ones who control its impact
Jun 9, 2025
Paramark News Desk

Credit: Outlever
Key Points
AI image generation offers both opportunities and challenges for marketers and designers.
Nicole Leffer, CMO AI Advisor, discusses the importance of creatives adapting to AI to remain relevant in their fields.
Recent advancements in AI image generation have significantly improved the quality and usability of tools for professional work.
Ethical use of AI in art is essential, with a focus on respecting artists' intellectual property and maintaining creative integrity.
The cat is out of the bag with AI, and it’s not going back. Creatives have a choice: be afraid and let it potentially destroy your career, or embrace it, learn it, and become the person who can control it.

Nicole Leffer
CMO AI Advisor
,
A. Catalyst, LLC
For creatives, AI image generation is both muse and menace. It’s simultaneously handing unprecedented power to marketers and designers, while also stoking existential fears about job displacement and the future of human creativity.
Nicole Leffer, CMO and AI Advisor for DTC B2C as well as B2B and SaaS brands, helps marketing teams navigate the disruption. Though the technology is moving fast, in her view, there’s still plenty of room for creatives to lead—if they’re willing to adapt.
Now or never: "The cat is out of the bag with AI, and it’s not going back," says Leffer. "Creatives have a choice: be afraid and let it potentially destroy your career, or embrace it, learn it, and become the person who can control it." Owning the change—not resisting it—is what separates those who stay in the game from those who get swept off the board.
A huge leap forward: Leffer was immediately struck by the capabilities of recent AI image generation updates coming out of Google i/o. Having used earlier iterations like DALL-E, she found the improvements—especially with anything involving text or realistic-looking photography—"just absolutely huge." For marketers, the upgrade is more than cosmetic: The tools are now "significantly more useful for so many use cases," producing images that finally feel fit for professional work.
From hieroglyphics to high-fidelity: "You don't understand where we were," Leffer says, reflecting on how quickly the technology has evolved. "It was not that long ago that it looked like Egyptian hieroglyphics if you tried to ask it to write text." That kind of progress has made today’s tools genuinely exciting (and far more usable!) for real-world marketing needs.
Learning to walk: Despite the leaps forward, Leffer is pragmatic about the current limitations. "It's still not 100% perfect. There are issues that come up. It's still baby technology," she says. Users might notice quirks—like when "it cuts off the sides of your images" or the text gets "a little bit confused." And while it's now "a million times better for infographics," it's still not always the ideal choice.
The human guide: Leffer sees skilled creatives not as casualties of AI, but as its most effective collaborators. "The more you understand design—the vocabulary, the ability to describe it, the education, the eye—you can get 10 times better results out of it than someone who doesn’t have that," she explains. The opportunity lies in synergy. "There's definitely going to be a really amazing space for the creatives that can learn how to communicate with the tools to bring that same creative vision to life." Their value will come from "directing and guiding and taking advantage of how cool the technology is," says Leffer. "Companies still want the human, but assisted by AI to speed up the process."
The more you understand design—the vocabulary, the ability to describe it, the education, the eye—you can get 10 times better results out of it than someone who doesn’t have that.

Nicole Leffer
CMO AI Advisor
,
A. Catalyst, LLC
Respect the brush: When it comes to the ethics of AI-generated art, Leffer draws a clear line. "I would never use a real artist's name. That's a line for me," she says. "I would never give it a real artist's image myself and say, 'Create me something in the style of this real artist's image', unless I commissioned the piece." To her, that crosses into "explicitly taking a specific person's IP." The distinction, she explains, lies in how all artists learn: "Every artist learned from seeing other art and studying other art. This is the AI equivalent of an artist learning their craft," says Leffer.
Reality check: The power of these tools forces a hard look at their impact on creative professions. "I won't sugarcoat—it is scary for creators and graphic designers," Leffer admits. "I don't think it's replacing that yet, but I understand the fear," she says. "It's going to have a huge impact on those kinds of jobs." At the same time, she believes some creative roles will remain secure—especially those rooted in reality. "I don't think we're ever going to get away from having photojournalists—people who document reality."
Related articles

AI
Plotting the end of traditional departmental silos as AI reshapes marketing orgs
Jun 29, 2025
Paramark News Desk

AI
How GenAI is taking the 'voodoo' out of e-com with simple, scalable fixes for traditional CRO
Jun 27, 2025
Paramark News Desk

AI
As AI content explodes, trust becomes the new gold
Jun 25, 2025
Paramark News Desk

AI
Why brand and community are the last true bastions of competitive edge in the era of AI's
Jun 24, 2025
Paramark News Desk
Load More

Solutions