What does not change
Taste. Hierarchy. Light. The ability to say a reference is being used as a spell instead of a function. Generative tools did not retire that literacy. They made the lack of it louder, because volume no longer waits for a junior to draw it.
What does
Continuity is now a document you paste, not a wall you glance at. Review is a dailies ritual under hundreds of frames. Software showed up as a medium. The art director who only signs stills will be asked, soon, why the agent built a purple dashboard “in the same brand.”
When you need both chairs
Large orgs: art director on look, AI CD on pipeline and cut. Small orgs: one person, two hats, no rename. If the posting says AI Creative Director and the scorecard is only “pretty Midjourney,” they meant operator.