Vy Lam is 35, based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. She studied graphic design for four years at university, spent four years in design agencies, then shifted into commercial photography for over five years. Today she runs both practices side by side, believing design teaches composition and storytelling while photography teaches light, texture and emotion.
One day changed everything. A client needed design work urgently. Vy's Adobe account kept glitching and she couldn't access her tools. After waiting, the client sent a message: "Just let me do it with AI — it'll be faster."
That single sentence hit her harder than she expected. "I've always used AI in my work. I've always seen it as a tool to work faster and expand creative possibilities, not a competitor," Vy says. "But that day, I realized AI had directly taken a job from me."
She started asking herself questions that wouldn't go away: Am I gradually being replaced? Where does a creative person's value lie when AI can do everything faster? What do I need to change?
What troubles her most isn't losing one project. It's watching how clients now perceive the profession. "I've noticed some clients have started thinking AI can completely replace a designer. They think if there's an image and text, that's enough — they don't care about aesthetics, layout, or whether the message actually lands."
Every month, Vy invests heavily in licensed software, AI tools, storage, equipment maintenance, and props. She also spends money on courses to stay current. Seeing that investment devalued because "AI can do it in 30 seconds" hurts.
After the incident, Vy took a hard look at her practice. She decided to double down on what tools can't replace: strategic thinking, client partnership, and solutions tailored to each project. And she still uses AI in her workflow — it frees her time to focus on strategy, emotion, and walking with clients through the process.
"When I was in university, first year was mostly hand-drawing, cutting, pasting, building models," she says. "Those early lessons taught me that ideas and creative thinking always start with the human being. The tool is just a way to bring the idea to life."