70% of creators say AI is a threat to their careers

Creators used to avoid talking about burnout. Everyone knew making content a career could have negative effects on their mental health, but it was almost a taboo to talk about how hard our industry is—until, in 2018 and 2019, creators like Elle Mills, Lilly Singh, and Jacksepticeye started sharing their experiences. Now, both creators and the platforms on which they make their livings talk regularly about burnout—and how to mitigate it.

Those talks seem to be paying off, because according to a new study from affiliate marketing platforms Awin and ShareASale, the number of creators suffering from burnout, while still high, has decreased from 2022.

In a survey conducted with creators in the U.S., U.K., and Germany, 73% of respondents said they suffer from burnout at least some of the time—a 14% drop from 87% in 2022.

Creators who said they experience burnout attributed it to a few core causes: the anxiety of constantly shifting platform policies; worrying their content isn’t up to snuff; feeling like they can’t fully “turn off” from social media; and the rise of generative artificial intelligence.

The survey indicates creators are still pretty split on the existence of gen AI and what it could do to our industry. We’ve talked a lot about how creators need to have ownership over their content, and how some AI companies have unethically scraped creators’ videos to train their large language models. That, combined with the deluge of AI-generated content from all the growth hacker moneymaxxing side hustle bros promoting “faceless YouTube channels” as the next big way to make a million bucks of passive income, has made some creators uneasy about how many companies in our space, including YouTube itself, are praising AI as the next evolution of creativity.

70% of creators told Awin and ShareASale they think AI poses at least a small threat to their business, with 26% saying it poses some threat and 16% saying it poses a “great threat.” Only 30% said they think AI poses no threat.

Creators on both sides said AI has an effect on their burnout, with folks who are leery of AI saying they’re afraid consumers will no longer take digital content seriously as a profession (46% of respondents) and that they think it puts extra pressure on them to stand out and produce unique content without AI (43%). 48% also said they think the rise of AI will decrease the amount of meaningful content on the internet as a whole, something we’ve already seen happen.

Creators who are for AI, on the other hand, say it helps with content creation, specifically the editing process, and that it “enhances overall creativity.” These creators are using AI tools for things like brainstorming content, creating thumbnails, writing video descriptions and other social media copy, replying to viewers’ comments, and marketing. So, basically every aspect of being a creator.

Where does this leave us? AI, whether people like it or not, already has a significant foothold in the creator space: 32% of respondents to this survey said they use some form of AI in their creative process. That adoption has happened just in the last two years, since ChatGPT debuted in November 2022.

If AI really is contributing to the decrease in burnout for folks who use it, that could be a positive effect for creators. But its growth is also causing anxiety for some creators that they’ll lose their jobs to a voice-and-video generator–and the instability of this career has always been one of the biggest and most consistent drivers of burnout.