Artificial intelligence (AI) has developed from a topic of the future to a lived reality in a very short space of time. The creative sector is also changing fundamentally as a result. Two years ago, we spoke about this with the Creative Director of brand agency Mutabor. Now we ask Moritz Carstens about it: How has artificial intelligence changed the world of packaging design since then?
The role of creatives is changing. „Although everyone was talking about artificial intelligence two years ago, it was not yet established in our day-to-day work. Now it's part of our daily business and AI has also become the norm for customers. Everything has changed very quickly and we are now increasingly becoming curators,“ says Moritz Carstens. Where previously image editing programmes such as Photoshop were used, AI systems are now taking over entire areas of responsibility. „We set the style and direction, while the AI generates content such as images, illustrations and text. However, this also enables faster coordination with customers, and packaging is now thought about in a completely different way, including by customers.“
AI-supported workflows: Efficiency meets scalability
Innovative approaches are based on Specialised AI agents, which take over certain functions such as colour selection, layout design or text creation. „Development is going much faster than we could have dreamed. These agents work in parallel, and in order to be able to operate them, we have to take many things into account and have the guidelines ready in the background.“ However, initial practical applications show that Packaging solutions can thus be realised more quickly and cost-effectively - an enormous advantage, especially for companies with a broad product range.
„Everything has become so easy with the AI tools. For example, we no longer have to type anything, because the language models are getting better and better and react faster and faster. We will soon be doing everything via voice control and will no longer need complex interfaces. It won't take long, because the voice models already exist, they just need to be used appropriately. Many things could already work today. I am sure that we will be a big step further next year.“
Moritz Carstens, Creative Director of the brand agency Mutabor
Democratisation of visual quality
The influence of AI is already clearly noticeable in the mass market, while the luxury segment will continue to be dominated by manual labour in the future, says the packaging expert. But AI also opens up completely new opportunities for smaller brands. High-quality visuals or elaborate mock-ups, which used to be associated with high costs, can now also be realised with a small budget. Overall, the democratisation of design quality does not necessarily mean a loss of individuality, but rather opens up new avenues for brand communication.
„There are still some minor legal hurdles at the moment, but we have largely solved them, for example with our own AI unit, which develops tools for images and text itself. That is particularly important, when a new product needs to be staged quickly - for example with photos for the rollout and for social media.“
Moritz Carstens is convinced that in order to fully utilise the potential of new AI technologies, new projects must be designed to be AI-ready from the outset. However, despite all the possibilities that artificial intelligence offers in the creative sector, human intuition remains essential. „Only people can create visions.“ Recognising trends and precise fine-tuning in brand development cannot be fully automated.
Creativity is indispensable, especially for complex or high-quality packaging concepts. Here the AI can only provide suggestions - However, decisions, particularly in the context of brand perception and addressing target groups, still have to be made by people. „That's our strength: recognising what will work. That's why curating will also be our task in the future.“
packaging journal 3/2025
