Research current trends and new technology, such as printing production techniques, computer software, and design trends.

“Research current trends and new technology, such as printing production techniques, computer software, and design trends.” is a core task performed by Art Directors. Among the occupation's 16 rated tasks, workers place it 2nd by importance (#15 most important). About 93% of workers say it is relevant to their job.

This is a single occupation-specific task statement from O*NET. The figures below describe how central the task is to the job and what independent studies measure about AI and this kind of work — not a prediction that the task will be automated.

Work activities this task rolls up to

O*NET groups concrete tasks into broader work activities shared across many occupations.

• Research technology designs or applications. in Getting Information

AI exposure

The OpenAI / Eloundou “GPTs are GPTs” study rates this task E2. Exposure with tools — software built on top of a language model (not the model alone) could cut the time by at least half.

Exposure measures whether a model could meaningfully speed the task up — it is an estimate of overlap with model capabilities, not a measure of whether the work will be done by software. The study's intermediate score (β) for this task is 0.50. Automation potential label: T3.

How AI is actually used on this kind of task

The Anthropic Economic Index observes how people actually use AI on tasks like this one across millions of real conversations.

• 0.003% share of AI-use records mapped to this task
• Most common interaction: directive
• Average autonomy of the AI: 2.8 (1–5; higher = more autonomous)
• 100% of interactions still needed a human in the loop

Observed AI use describes people choosing to use AI as a tool on this kind of task today. It is augmentation and assistance, not a measure of jobs replaced.

Working with AI vs. handing it off

Of the AI conversations mapped to this task, the split between people working alongside AI and people delegating the task to it.

How people interact with AI on this task

Other tasks in this occupation

• Work with creative directors to develop design solutions. · importance 4.6
• Present final layouts to clients for approval. · importance 4.5
• Manage own accounts and projects, working within budget and scheduling requirements. · importance 4.4
• Confer with creative, art, copywriting, or production department heads to discuss client requirements and presentation concepts and to coordinate creative activities. · importance 4.3
• Confer with clients to determine objectives, budget, background information, and presentation approaches, styles, and techniques. · importance 4.3
• Formulate basic layout design or presentation approach and specify material details, such as style and size of type, photographs, graphics, animation, video, and sound. · importance 4.2
• Review and approve art materials, copy materials, and proofs of printed copy developed by staff members. · importance 4.2
• Mark up, paste, and complete layouts and write typography instructions to prepare materials for typesetting or printing. · importance 4.2
• Create custom illustrations or other graphic elements. · importance 4.1
• Attend photo shoots and printing sessions to ensure that the products needed are obtained. · importance 4.1
• Review illustrative material to determine if it conforms to standards and specifications. · importance 4.0
• Hire, train, and direct staff members who develop design concepts into art layouts or who prepare layouts for printing. · importance 4.0
• Conceptualize and help design interfaces for multimedia games, products, and devices. · importance 3.9
• Prepare detailed storyboards showing sequence and timing of story development for television production. · importance 3.7

See all tasks on the Art Directors page.

Sources for this page

Every figure above traces to a named public dataset and the exact release below — not hand-written opinion. See the full methodology for what each measure does and does not mean.

• O*NET 30.3 U.S. Department of Labor / National Center for O*NET Development
• Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27) Anthropic
• “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130 OpenAI / academic

Data compiled June 2, 2026. Figures are estimates, not advice.

@misc{singulariki-task-20242,
  title  = {Research current trends and new technology, such as printing production techniques, computer software, and design trends.},
  author = {{Singulariki}},
  year   = {2026},
  note   = {O*NET 30.3; Anthropic Economic Index v4 (2026-01-15) + v2 (2025-03-27); “GPTs are GPTs” (Eloundou et al.) arXiv 2303.10130. Accessed June 7, 2026},
  url    = {https://singulariki.com/tasks/task-20242}
}