Commercial and Industrial Designers

Low Risk
39%
Where Would You Like to Go Next?
Share your results with friends and family.
Vote Comments (17)
Or, Explore This Profession in Greater Detail...
AUTOMATION RISK
CALCULATED
47%
(Moderate Risk)
POLLING
31%
(Low Risk)
Average: 39%
LABOR DEMAND
GROWTH
3.1%
by year 2033
WAGES
$76,250
or $36.66 per hour
Volume
30,810
as of 2023
SUMMARY
JOB SCORE
5.5/10

People also viewed

Calculated automation risk

47% (Moderate Risk)

Moderate Risk (41-60%): Occupations with a moderate risk of automation usually involve routine tasks but still require some human judgment and interaction.

More information on what this score is, and how it is calculated is available here.

Some quite important qualities of the job are difficult to automate:

  • Originality

  • Persuasion

  • Social Perceptiveness

User poll

31% chance of full automation within the next two decades

Our visitors have voted there's a low chance this occupation will be automated. This assessment is further supported by the calculated automation risk level, which estimates 47% chance of automation.

What do you think the risk of automation is?

What is the likelihood that Commercial and Industrial Designers will be replaced by robots or artificial intelligence within the next 20 years?






Sentiment

The following graph is included wherever there is a substantial amount of votes to render meaningful data. These visual representations display user poll results over time, providing a significant indication of sentiment trends.

Sentiment over time (yearly)

Growth

Slow growth relative to other professions.

The number of 'Commercial and Industrial Designers' job openings is expected to rise 3.1% by 2033

Total employment, and estimated job openings

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics for the period between 2021 and 2031
Updated projections are due 09-2024.

Wages

High paid relative to other professions

In 2023, the median annual wage for 'Commercial and Industrial Designers' was $76,250, or $36 per hour

'Commercial and Industrial Designers' were paid 58.7% higher than the national median wage, which stood at $48,060

Wages over time

* Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics

Volume

Lower range of job opportunities compared to other professions

As of 2023 there were 30,810 people employed as 'Commercial and Industrial Designers' within the United States.

This represents around < 0.001% of the employed workforce across the country

Put another way, around 1 in 4 thousand people are employed as 'Commercial and Industrial Designers'.

Job description

Design and develop manufactured products, such as cars, home appliances, and children's toys. Combine artistic talent with research on product use, marketing, and materials to create the most functional and appealing product design.

SOC Code: 27-1021.00

Resources

Search jobs in your local area

If you're thinking of starting a new career, or looking to change jobs, we've created a handy job search tool which might just help you land that perfect new role.

Search jobs in your local area

Comments

Leave a comment

incandescent_waller (Low) 3 months ago
The thing more requires originality, something hard for AI to achieve
0 0 Reply
Ian D. Velázquez (Low) 1 year ago
AI will never have the social awareness and emocional human understanding to replace an industrial designer
0 0 Reply
Oscar Humano (Low) 1 year ago
Parameters and ideas can be shared between humans and robots. Since sensory levels are still predominantly in humans and design is based on sensations and experiences, robots need to feed on human sensations and experiences.
0 0 Reply
Nicolas 1 year ago
I see how many classic "low-level" design tasks can be automated. Design agencies that specialize in the isolated styling of consumer goods for various smaller companies or brands will probably need far fewer employees in the future.

Of course, modern designers work in a multidisciplinary manner and communicate between the various fields of product development. They are not as isolated as the qualities listed above suggest, so I doubt they will become extinct too quickly.

Companies are unlikely to risk their money and reputation on AI wild shots without some form of sentient consideration. Despite this, I bet some will try it anyway, and I am honestly eager to see them succeed.

Advanced creative tasks like innovation management and the expansion of the product portfolio are too important for companies to leave exclusively to tools right now. This job will likely adapt and merge a lot more with engineering and management disciplines.

It is normal for jobs to change with technology.
0 0 Reply
Zaber (Low) 1 year ago
Designing industrial products that people use every day is a complex task. It requires a lot of real-world field research, which an AI confined within the boundaries of machines cannot comprehend or execute. In my opinion, AI will certainly be a blessing for industrial designers and others. A vast amount of data can be processed with great insights in a very short amount of time, adding massive value to the work of designers.

However, the human-like quality of AI, like Chat GPT3 and others, is still primitive in capacity, even though their articulation is top-notch, to say the least. Even then, it is not enough to design products at the capacity that humans currently are capable of.

Certain design fields will probably struggle to reduce their dependency on humans, like graphic design, illustrations, and animation design. However, fields like product or industrial design, architecture, and the like are not likely to be replaced any time soon.

For now and in the foreseeable future, I see AI as a personal assistant to industrial designers rather than a threat.
0 0 Reply
Wnm (Highly likely) 2 years ago
AI is as good as its inputs. As more data from the design world is entered, the better AI will become at generating creative solutions and output.
1 0 Reply
Zhusepe (Moderate) 2 years ago
Recent developments with AI show that it's fully feasible to automate product design.

Given a certain prompt and a starting image, an AI could create thousands of designs, each better than the last one.
0 0 Reply
Alex (Low) 2 years ago
Automation will streamline the process for industrial design. So, while companies might hire fewer designers to accomplish the same output of work, the work itself will never be completely automated. This is due to how fundamental the product is to the bottom line of a company's profit.

New CAD tools will optimize and speed up the development process. Consequently, companies will hire fewer employees and expect more from them. This could lead to worker burnout and exploitation becoming even more common, due to the limited staff.

Prospective employees, in addition to having exceptional artistic skills, will also be expected to have proficiency in programming.
0 0 Reply
Nitin (Uncertain) 3 years ago
Industrial design is both about beauty and function. We have tools already that could simulate and rank the functional efficiencies. Data science could play a role in outlining the patterns of large-scale users' likings, which individual designers might not be able to do.
0 0 Reply
Oscar Os 4 years ago
En ingles o español creo que no se entiende que es una profesión que tiene muchos factores que difícilmente se pueden generar algoritmos, el arte a mi parecer es la ultima línea de los algoritmos, el diseño industrial contempla Ciencias y artes. Tan lógico como que cualquiera puede tener una propuesta a muchos requerimientos en la industria.

In English or Spanish I think it is not understood that it is a profession that has many factors that it is difficult to generate algorithms, art in my opinion is the last line of algorithms, industrial design contemplates Sciences and arts. As logical as that anyone can have a proposal to many requirements in the industry.
0 0 Reply
Raúl Palafox 4 years ago
industrial design could be developed by robots till the algorithms decide how we should love
0 0 Reply
Marco (No chance) 4 years ago
Design is an art, it's subjective, there's no way a machine can replace this job.
0 0 Reply
Omar 3 years ago
What? I know that some of the young graphic designers and some students consider themselves artists but you should know that that isn't art. Some types of design use elements of art, but that doesn't make it art.
0 0 Reply
w 2 years ago
Graphic design isn't the same as industrial design. Yes, it is an art in many ways.

In my humble opinion, it falls under creative technology. It doesn't matter what you are actually designing; you're always going to, in the end, design a new way of living.
0 0 Reply
the (Low) 4 years ago
creation of original ideas is one of the few things that I see machines having a hard time doing
0 0 Reply
Jon (Low) 5 years ago
Industrial Designers could use robots or design them for automation
0 0 Reply
Alex 4 years ago
not in my home
0 0 Reply

Leave a reply about this occupation

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.