I wish I could give you 5 hearts for this! Thank you for posting! I know it’s true about adapting or being wiped out. I’m just still not convinced when it comes to the business side of things, though. That part really depends on the customer’s perception.
The one very good thing on Zazzle is that prices can’t be marked down to like 10 cents per invite like they can on other platforms. So it won’t create a total race to the bottom here like I’m seeing elsewhere. And, again, there is Zazzle’s customer base and marketing budget. I better make a list of pros while I’m thinking of all of the cons, I suppose : )
Thanks for sharing 
I hope there will always be people who just want a finished design, versus trying to argue with AI. After trying to help my parents choose a color for their house using ChatGPT to change colors… I was about to throw my computer out the window… and trying to get it to do specific things on other projects 
Let’s just say we had words. 
I know it will get better and better as it goes, but I hope there will always be a market for our ‘professional eye’.
Will AI replace artists? I think it’s heading in the same direction we’ve already seen in other industries. Robots replaced a lot of automated jobs fast food workers, factory workers, warehouse labor , pizza delivery robotic and AI has already pushed out studio writers.. So yes, I think AI may remove a large portion of POD artists over time. It feels inevitable. But not all AI products are equal, and I suspect POD platforms will keep human creators to maintain variety and balance so everything doesn’t look the same. There will always be human painters, illustrators, and graphic designers because AI still struggles to generate certain styles. We’ve already seen this in the ebook world. AI flooded the market with auto written books, and they sold for a while but readers quickly noticed the difference. Human written books are taking the lead again because people can read the human authenticity. So yes, AI is changing everything, but I don’t think it will erase human creativity.
Ha!!! I did this for my mom too. ChatGPT “put the couch so that it facing the window” - “no facing the window” - “move the couch so that is back is against the wall directly across from the window” - “wtf? Rotate the couch 90 degrees” ughhh! Been there 
This article describes the direction I’m going. I use AI to make the starter image and then change it with Illustrator or Photoshop or paint over it with Corel Painter. Or I do the reverse and make the starter image in Photoshop, Illustrator or Photoshop and then tweak it with AI. It is also good at making composite designs more coherent by automating the color grading and smoothing places where elements of the composite overlap.
Honestly, it’s also concerning that Z has its own store and can offer products at more competitive prices than independent creators, since it doesn’t need to increase its royalties. On top of that, it has all the resources at its disposal to create products.
I do email marketing for a specialty publication, the Editors are not tech savy and I was amazed how many AI marketing posts were posted on Facebook. You can tell they are AI. That’s my hope too @Jo_P I hope that Z customers still value a professional design. The prompts can be the tricky part. There are plenty of AI sites out there. If they want to design it themselves though, why would they be on Zazzle. Why not just go to Midjourney or Canva? Oh YOY. something else to worry about. lol