43 years as a graphic designer/art director. I'm soooo glad I'm retired now..... AI will kill the graphic design industry within 2-5 years. It's been dumbed down to being able to type into a search bar.
My experience shares a similar dynamic.
My major in college was graphic design, and it was my "chosen path" as such.
But this was in the early 1980's, and at that time most of the work was done by hand, and/or by film (stat cameras). About the only thing that was digital, or "computerized", were dedicated were typesetting machines. We produced "camera ready artwork" by hand, did a lot of pen & ink work, and our tools included exacto knives, wax rollers, rubylith, letraset type, etc.
But we were on a cusp of change. Desktop computers were becoming a thing, and more and more work started being done digitally. For the most part, personal, at-home computers were not yet common, so it wasn't quite approachable for "regular people", but of course that was coming....along with a great deal of "dumbing down" of being able to "do" graphic design.
Also, at the time, I HATED working on computers. And the thought of sitting at a desk, typing on a keyboard, and staring at a screen all day filled me with dread. But this was exactly the scenario I could see was soon going to be the life of a "graphic designer". Which is why I started to veer off that path (along with the idea of ski-bumming in Steamboat for a winter!).
So, after a couple years of working in a graphics shop in Boston (actually heading up the department), I ditched it all and headed west. And I did spend that winter in Steamboat, and it was fantastic.
Since then, I've done a fair bit of freelance work on occasion, but I'm not "in the industry" as such. These days I DO use graphics software and do things "digitally". My tolerance for it has changed since those younger wilder days, but it's still not something I want to do a lot of, I don't have to be a slave to it 40+ hours a week, and I'm much happier spending time working with my hands or with something physical.
The AI revolution that is changing the graphics industry for you, is analogous to what the "digital/computer" revolution was for me all those years ago.
I "got out" (as a full time career) when I saw it coming.
s6