Pros and Cons of using AI Artwork for Billboards

People who couldn’t draw, design on their own or afford a graphic designer can now generate highly complex visuals to send to printers for production. But there are a few things to consider before doing so.

Cons: Low resolution. Output is usually 72 to 96 dpi. Crisp physical prints usually require 300 dpi.
Fix: Designers invest in software for “upscaling” to artificially inject pixels and sharpen edges before printing

Con: AI Models output RGB (Red, Green, Blue). Color output is unpredictable when converting to CMYK.
Fix: Designers will convert RGB files and send you proofs showing the expected color conversion. Remember even computer screens vary.

Con: AI generated images cannot be copyrighted. There are ongoing lawsuits regarding whether AI models infringe on copyrights. Print shops printing large runs of proprietary or trademarked characters generated by AI face risk.
Fix: AI-generated images make it easy to create artwork without sifting through tons of stock photography. When using people, characters or logos be cautious and research the image you are using. Do a reverse image search through Google Images, TinEye, and Bing Visual Search. Major enterprise tools like Adobe Firefly, Shutterstock AI, and Getty Images Generative AI offer legal indemnity. This means if a client gets sued for copyright infringement over an image generated on their platform, the tech company’s legal team will step in to cover the damages. When in doubt it is safer to use standard, fully licensed stock assets or create an element from scratch. It is worth doing a little bit of extra research on this topic.

Client-provided AI artwork eliminates communication guesswork, shifting the designer’s role from concept creation to design refinement. Designers act as active file-fixers who optimize quality through upscaling, resizing, color conversion, and image correction. Due diligence is required from both the designer and the advertiser to consider.