The State of the Art-ists
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Creative Boom has released the results of its 2026 survey from creatives around the world, with the scales tipped toward the United Kingdom and the Unites States.
The state of the creative industry 2026 survey as spelled out by Tom May
Our wide-ranging survey lays bare a profession that’s exhausted, anxious about its future, and using AI tools it doesn’t trust.
The article itself doesn’t get any better than that sub-head quotes above. Here’s the lede:
eeling tired, less secure and resentful of AI? Then it’s official: you’re by no means alone. Creative Boom’s flagship survey for 2026, gathering responses from 882 creative professionals worldwide (UK and US weighted, with 43% bringing more than a decade of experience), confirms what you’ve probably already suspected. This has been a tough year for creatives, wherever you are in your career.
This isn’t a survey about one bad quarter. It’s a story about a workforce under serious pressure, trying to work out what AI, the economy, and a changing client landscape mean for their livelihoods, and finding few reassuring answers.
May divides the survey into segments.
A boom in burnout
… a massive 69 per cent of respondents say they’ve experienced burnout in the past 12 months…
AI adoption vs approval
…Eighty-six per cent of respondents now use AI tools in their work … only 10% of creatives think AI’s overall effect on the industry is positive…
What’s happening to freelance pay?
…half of the respondents feel less financially secure than they did a year ago … For the self-employed, particularly, the picture is stark…
Are creatives quitting?
…the bigger problem isn’t people quitting creative work outright; it’s people quietly looking for a way out of their current role, agency or set-up, while staying within the profession itself…
Awards are being ignored
…awards have slipped down the priority list for many … they’re too expensive and inaccessible to bother with…
What would actually help
Asked what would genuinely improve their working lives, our respondents didn’t point to new software…
A big tip of the hat to Jason Chatfield who, as a creative, has his own thoughts about the survey.
Everyone’s Tired & Nobody Trusts the Robot..
…the money is where the survey stops being darkly funny and just goes dark. Half of the respondents feel less financially secure than they did a year ago, compared with just 18% who feel more secure. And for the freelancers -my people, the dip-pen-and-mild-dread brigade- nearly 47% of self-employed creatives in the survey earn less than £30,000 a year ($39k in the US).
…this isn’t a [survey] full of beginners finding their feet. It’s a room full of people who are very good at what they do, earning well below the median salary, with none of the safety net a salary usually drags along behind it. As someone who left a salary and a country to chase this exact life, I read that figure and did the laugh you do when crying seems excessive for a Tuesday morning.
feature image from Leicester Mercury 1898 (artist unknown)
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