생성형 AI의 등장과 국내 광고사진 산업의 변화와 대응 연구

Abstract

In the midst of rapid advancements in generative AI technology, its adoption and utilization are expanding not only in our daily lives but also within the advertising industry. Particularly, with major advertising platforms shifting towards a mobile-centric focus, there has been a significant transformation in the public's reception of images. This, coupled with the synergistic effects of the rapidly developing generative AI technology, holds the potential to accelerate changes in the ecology of the advertising photography industry. Through interviews and surveys with professionals in the advertising photography industry, notable phenomena were observed. These include a substantial decrease in the conventional draft photography tasks performed by advertising photographers, a concentration of large-scale advertisements at a few advertising agencies leading to a polarization in advertising rates, and a prevalence of relatively low-cost digital work at digital agencies. Additionally, observable trends encompass the emergence of digital agencies specializing in mass-producing AI-generated images for social media and a decline in outsourced photography requests due to AI-based photography machines. However, some advertising photographers reported a lack of perceptible changes resulting from the adoption of generative AI, indicating that the current transition is localized and in its early stages. Furthermore, while generative AI has demonstrated prowess in technical image implementation, its impact in the planning domain has been less remarkable. Given these observations, in the generative AI era, advertising photographers are anticipated to assume the role of visual directors, requiring an understanding of the cultural context of images and active involvement in image design and production. To address these evolving roles, university education aimed at nurturing advertising photographers should establish a direction to maximize planning capabilities.