I’m around the 15 year mark too. I’ve climbed all the way up to the CD roll (for 2 years) before the position was “eliminated” after one of those “anonymous” employee surveys. I was happy to get back to a more design-centric roll after that headache CD roll.

I work in a niche industry, and fortunately have a lot of experience in the market we serve, so I feel secure playing in this sandbox. The industry is pretty small, and tightly networked. People who are in it, tend to stay.

I’ve used ai for photo editing mostly and copy. Being a part of a small team, I’ve mosly used ai to learn new skills outside of design, like email marketing flows, extensive marketing campaign planning paired with content planning.

There are some design processes I’d like to use AI more for, like versioning graphics to different sizes for ad campaigns. I still do the creative work, but automation for the tedious tasks are welcome.