In Graphic Detail: How creators are using generative AI to shape video and design

On Thursday, May 14, AI audio generation company Wondercraft is publishing a comprehensive report on creators’ use of AI tools in their daily or weekly workflows. The report, which drew from an online survey distributed between March and April 2025, featured responses from 514 creators distributed across North America, Europe and other regions, with the majority of respondents residing in North America. Subjects were split roughly evenly between genders and age groups. 

“I would imagine that most of the content coming out is at least partially aided by AI, unless it’s a journalist writing a Substack,” said Allison Harbin, a responsible AI expert who serves as an AI analyst for professional services advisory CBIZ, who noted that journalists’ ethical considerations were more likely to preclude them from using AI compared to other types of creatives.

Here’s a look into how — and how many — creators are embracing AI in 2025.

Over 80 percent of creators use AI in some part of their workflow

Wondercraft’s survey found that 38.7 percent of creators currently use AI throughout their workflow, with 44.2 percent using AI in parts of their process. That means nearly 83 percent of creators who responded to the survey are using AI in some shape or form, with the remaining 20 percent evenly split between creators who have tried AI, but stopped, and creators who have never used AI tools.

Although the term “AI” gets bandied around to describe both generative AI and older machine learning tools, Wondercraft’s survey focused on generative AI, with respondents reporting that they were using AI imaging tools such as Midjourney, chat tools like ChatGPT and audio tools such as Wondercraft and ElevenLabs. Chat tools represented the largest share of creators, with 37.6 percent saying this was their most-used type of AI tool.

“We find, with our users, that [AI] scripting is the genesis of everything,” said Wondercraft CEO Oskar Serrander.

AI use is most prevalent among video creators

According to Wondercraft’s findings, the number of individual video creators who use AI in their workflow exceeds the combined number of text, visual design and audio creators using AI tools, with 54 percent of respondents identifying as video creators. This finding is backed up by other reports focused on creators’ use of AI — such as URLgenius’s creator AI use report last month, which found that 29 percent of TikTok creators were regularly using AI, compared to only 17 percent of commerce creators across platforms such as Instagram and Facebook. While text and audio creators typically use AI for scripting and visual creators use it for imagery, video creators can take advantage of both.

URLgenius CEO Brian Klais said he believed the uptick in creators’ AI use across all formats reflected a desire to make their workflow more streamlined and efficient going into a potential economic recession. 

“If you’re talking about AI from a productivity standpoint, or streamlining workflow, that’s our takeaway — that in this economic environment, it’s almost going to force people to look at how AI can help you do more with less,” he said.

Older creators are more likely to use AI

One of the most unexpected findings of Wondercraft’s report was that only 41.8 percent of respondents under the age of 25 said that they used AI throughout their workflow — significantly lower than respondents in older age groups, according to Serrander. 44.2 percent of 25-to-34-year-olds said that they used AI throughout their workflow, as well as 43.2 percent of respondents between ages 35 and 44 and 43.6 percent of respondents between 45 and 54.

It’s often assumed that younger generations are more likely to use new technology earlier, and Serrander said that he was surprised by the revelation that younger creators were more wary of adopting AI, but pointed out that the most advanced generative AI tools — the ones most suitable for producing finished, publishable work — are relatively expensive, and perhaps outside the budget of some younger creators.

Another potential explanation for younger creators’ relative lack of AI adoption is distrust or wariness of the new technology. Although use of AI by creators is up across the board, URLgenius’s April report found that 33 percent of creators view the replacement of human creativity with AI as their top concern.

Reasons to be cautious

In addition to their concerns over the impact of AI on human creativity, creators risk turning off members of their audience by using generative AI in their work. A January 2025 study by Nielsen found that 55 percent of respondents felt uncomfortable consuming AI-generated media, citing concerns over privacy issues, lack of ethical oversight and the potential to spread misinformation.

“The large language model could get some information wrong, or it could be factually inaccurate, and because large language models are black boxes — we don’t know how they’re trained, and even the engineers who made them aren’t even sure how they’re going to behave over time — that is always going to be a risk, that it’s going to be inaccurate,” Harbin said. “So, if [a creator’s] content depends on accuracy, I think disclosing that it was partially generated by AI is an important ethical obligation.”