Three years ago an AI-generated image instantly gave itself away: seven fingers, melted eyes, nonsense text on every sign. Today the tell is more often the absence of flaws — skin too smooth, lighting too uniform, composition too balanced.

What shifted

Two things. First, training pipelines started to prefer quality over quantity. Second, control mechanisms — ControlNet, IP-Adapter, reference conditioning — moved from research papers into shipping products.

The practical effect is that a solo designer can now art-direct a full campaign without booking a studio. That changes who competes and how.