How AI is Transforming Creative Design: Real‑World Cases & Workflow Insights

Since the second half of 2022, AI has significantly impacted creative professionals; understanding its wave and leveraging AI tools has become a new challenge for design teams. As a leading creative design team, we have explored AI applications.

AI's biggest benefit is dramatically improving work efficiency while ensuring output quality.

Feasibility of AI in Creative Design Work

1. Analysis of AIGC Tool Application Areas

Based on the actual business needs of the creative design team, we categorize requirements into several types.

For designers, AI is not the goal but a means to quickly meet current demands. Using a quadrant analysis, we identify the design areas where AIGC can most significantly boost efficiency.

Green area indicates the most significant efficiency gains for AIGC.

Thus, generating visual output and generic assets are the strengths of AIGC tools, making efficiency improvements in related scenarios feasible.

2. Analysis of AI in the Creative Design Process

Beyond tools, a complete workflow is essential to support standardized design tasks.

Quick extraction of requirements can focus on steps ①⑤⑥⑦.

Compared with traditional processes, AI‑driven workflows are fast and efficient but may have randomness and copyright issues.

Therefore, a prudent project selection and a hybrid workflow—AI assists early‑stage ideation, generates background and material mid‑process, and human refinement at the end—optimizes strengths and mitigates weaknesses.

AI Applications in Creative Design

1. AI‑Customized Creation Case

Cool Home Smart Assistant Promotional Poster

Results:

We used “Tongyi Tingwu”, ChatGPT, and Midjourney.

2. AI‑Semi‑Customized Creation Case

Industry Conference Banner

We mainly used Midjourney and AI smart cut‑out tools, generating images by combining a base image with prompt descriptors.

Prompt framework: base image + style description + content description + background description, high detail, glowing, studio lighting, isometric, UI with 3D elements, 3D render, bold, clean shadows, pure white background, 8k

This case reduced workflow time from 17.5 hours to 7.5 hours, a 57 % efficiency gain.

3. AI‑Universal Creation Case

Market Activity Background Board

We used Midjourney and AI image upscaling; the Blend function mixes two images to create a new one.

This case cut workflow time from 4 hours to 0.5 hours, an 87.5 % efficiency gain.

4. AI in IP Design

Tool selected: Stable Diffusion.

To quickly produce usable IP imagery for low‑standardization creative campaigns, we explored Stable Diffusion, generating large batches of varied‑style images from simple line sketches, which can later be refined for figurine design, digital collectibles, and other derivatives.

Conclusion

With the rapid emergence of AI tools, designers should master simple, easy‑to‑use AI applications for everyday tasks, while a few specialists develop advanced AI skills for high‑complexity projects, enabling collaborative workflows that boost overall efficiency.