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Art Directors

Arts, Design, Entertainment, Sports, and Media · SOC 27-1011

21.0% AI Exposure — High
$114,850
Median Annual Salary
Average
O*NET Outlook
11,100
Proj. Annual Openings
53,070
Employment (OEWS 2025)
+3.6%/yr
Empl. growth (2019–2025)
79/100
AI Resiliency Score

AI exposure from the Anthropic Economic Index (2025); salary from BLS; skills from O*NET. See /sources.

Decision card

Career Evidence Passport

SOC 27-1011 evidence across exposure, wages, projections, postings, certified LCAs, skills, and transitions.

Proxy / seed data labeledDescriptive-only
SOC exposure
21.0%
High · Anthropic AEI
Automation friction
46/100
Moderate friction; broad SOC seed ORS job-requirements coverage.
Wages
$114,850
H-1B offered wage $125,299; LCAs are filings.
Projected openings
11,100
BLS EP 2024–2034; employment change +4.2%.
Observed/proxy demand
119
FY2025 certified LCAs; 14,523 postings in 2025.

Skill evidence

Active ListeningSpeakingReading ComprehensionCritical ThinkingJudgment and Decision Making
  • H-1B values are certified Labor Condition Applications, not visa approvals.
  • Job postings are seed-static / seed-derived; treat as provider-ready proxy coverage until observed provider data is wired in.
  • Transition matches are directional skill-overlap context, not placement guarantees.
  • This release is a FutureGrid broad-SOC seed derived from public BLS ORS requirement concepts and categories, not direct occupation-level ORS survey estimates. It describes job requirements, not worker ability, AI capability, or displacement probability. Automation friction is a FutureGrid derived score and should be read alongside exposure, demand, wage, and projection signals.

Best transitions from here

Explore all pathways

Lower AI-exposure roles that reuse your skills, ranked by a transition score (skills that transfer, safety gain, pay and retraining effort).

AI Exposure Analysis

AI Exposure21.0%
AI Resiliency79/100
Exposure BandHigh
Sector Avg. Exposure18.3%

Across AI measures

Multiple exposure lenses for this occupation.

53%
Consensus
Actual adoption · Anthropic21%
AI capability · OpenAI50%
AI ability · AIOE88%
Automation baseline (2013) · Frey & Osborne2.3%

AI could do ~50% of this role but only ~21% is currently done with AI — a large capability-vs-adoption gap.

Top Skills

1.Active Listening
2.Speaking
3.Reading Comprehension
4.Critical Thinking
5.Judgment and Decision Making

H-1B Visa Sponsorship Demand

View full H-1B trends →

Certified H-1B Labor Condition Applications naming this occupation, FY2016–FY2025. A descriptive high-skill labor-demand signal — employer filings, not visa approvals or individual outcomes. Note: one LCA can cover multiple worker positions.

1,604
Decade Total (Certified LCAs)
119
FY2025 Volume
0% of all H-1B filings in FY2025
$125,299
Median Offered Wage (Latest Year)
#137 of 776
Rank by Total Volume
H-1B filing volume, FY2016–FY2025

O*NET occupation profile

What this work involves

Formulate design concepts and presentation approaches for visual productions and media, such as print, broadcasting, video, and film. Direct workers engaged in artwork or layout design.

Common titles: Art Director, Art Supervisor, Creative Director (CD Director), Creative Manager, Creative Services Director, Creative Services Manager

Representative Tasks

  • Work with creative directors to develop design solutions.
  • Present final layouts to clients for approval.
  • Manage own accounts and projects, working within budget and scheduling requirements.
  • Confer with creative, art, copywriting, or production department heads to discuss client requirements and presentation concepts and to coordinate creative activities.
  • Confer with clients to determine objectives, budget, background information, and presentation approaches, styles, and techniques.

Detailed Work Activities

  • Collaborate with others to develop or refine designs.
  • Present work to clients for approval.
  • Coordinate artistic activities.
  • Manage operations of artistic or entertainment departments or organizations.
  • Confer with clients to determine needs.

Tools & Technologies

Adobe After Effects · hotAdobe Creative Cloud software · hotAdobe Illustrator · hotAdobe Photoshop · hotMicrosoft PowerPoint · hotAJAX · hotCascading style sheets CSS · hotFacebook · hotHypertext markup language HTML · hotPHP · hot

Employment Projections & AI Exposure

15
Occupations Shown
17.7%
Avg AI Exposure
3
Bright Outlook
Horizontal bar chart showing occupations with the highest projected annual openings. Each bar length represents annual projected openings. Color uses a gradient from violet (lower) to cyan (higher). Summary statistics are shown above the chart.

Employment & Wage Trend

BLS OEWS, 2019–2025


Occupation Employment & Wage TrendMulti-year BLS OEWS history for SOC 27-1011: 2019 — employment: 42,890, median wage: $94,220; 2020 — employment: 40,950, median wage: $97,270; 2021 — employment: 42,080, median wage: $100,890; 2022 — employment: 54,470, median wage: $105,180; 2023 — employment: 51,200, median wage: $106,500; 2025 — employment: 53,070, median wage: $114,850.

Source: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics (OEWS). See /sources.

Sector Comparison

MetricThis CareerSector Average
AI Exposure21.0%18.3%
OutlookAverage18% Bright
Median Salary$114,850N/A
AI Resiliency79/100N/A