Considering the dizzying rate of progress in the development of AI and the amount of both positive and negative attention AI recieves online and in the media, we thought it would be interesting to consult the community and find out how working audio professionals feel about the developments in AI and their potential to disrupt the industry.
A couple of weeks ago we ran a short survey asking people working both in Music and in Post Production how they felt about AI and we were surprised by the results. Here’s a breakdown:
Do you principally work in Music or Post Production? - 51% vs 49% Music/Post.
An excellent spread between the two disciplines. The survey is notable immediately in the number of respondents, with fewer than a third of the number of respondents compared to our last survey, which was on Sample Rates. Perhaps this reflects a lack of interest in AI? The title of the survey article asked whether AI was going to affect our jobs. Maybe it’s not perceived as as much of a contentious issue as might be concluded from the headlines about it. Certainly our survey total of 733 respondents suggests this.
The results paint a somewhat different picture to what many might have anticipated. Rather than seeing AI as a technology with the potential to reduce earning potential or to replace roles altogether, the picture which emerges seems to be optimistic, with people seeing AI as something which will assist them rather than replace them. There are minor differences between Post and Music respondents but not by a great deal, particularly considering how significant the differences are between these two industries.
Level Of Concern About AI Replacing Jobs
People working in Music showed a notable lack of concern about AI with a weighting towards the least concerned ratings, the most common response being 2/5 with 1 being not concerned at all and 5 being extremely concerned.
People working in Post showed an even distribution of concern about AI with a clear weighting towards the middle, the most common response being 3/5 with 1 being not concerned at all and 5 being most extremely concerned.
Ranking Likelihood Of Potential Outcomes
The 5 statements respondents were asked to rank in order were:
AI will augment my productivity
AI will enable me to earn more
AI will improve my work/life balance
AI will replace significant elements of my role
AI won’t significantly affect my role
Of the 5 statements respondents were asked to rank in order of how likely they thought each statement was to be true, for people working in Music the conclusions were rather positive, with concern about AI replacing significant elements of their roles but the possibility of AI enabling them to earn more. This potential for maximising earnings is possibly because of the potential for AI to perform less creative but time consuming tasks semi-automatically, enabling faster throughput of work for professionals who are lucky enough to have more work than they do time.
Post Production respondents report as more concerned about AI negatively impacting their jobs and livelihoods but the fact that the possibility of AI replacing their role was ranked low suggests that their concern might be about AI making their jobs more highly pressured, perhaps with less time and an expectation of more work in that time than the danger of work drying up. However the results in this category are contradictory in places so no clear picture emerges.
Role Of AI In Marketing
The last question, which was answered by all respondents, investigates how the role of AI in products has been communicated. In our recent article Is AI Just A Pro Audio Marketing Tool? we asked whether AI was being disseminated to the public in a way which illuminated or obscured what it was. There was a broad agreement with the respondents that communication around AI hasn’t been ideal and might have impeded rather than promoted understanding of this rapidly developing area.
We’re (Not) All Doomed!
So despite the feverish attention AI receives in the press and online, our sample of working professionals don’t appear to be unduly concerned. What do you think the future holds for the Pro Audio Industry and what role do you think AI might have to play in it?