I've been a 3D artist for 15 years and I can tell you that it absolutely will be automated and likely within the next year.

The gains appear to be logarithmic.

My advice to others is to adopt these technologies into your workflow now.

Midjourney and stable diffusion coupled with 'Materialize' have already replaced the substance suite for me.

I'm not happy about it. I just want to see all of this tech reach its logical conclusion as fast as possible. I feel like the slow knife would be more dangerous than a sudden paradigm shift. So many people are going to lose their jobs, no matter how you spin it. It's tragic and the future looks so uncertain and weird.

Non-artists, it's coming after you next. All a lawyer or doctor does is collate relevant information and apply it to a question. They are next.

Helpdesk, retail, and, dare I say it, programmers.

Funnily enough it looks like tradesmen are pretty secure. And everyone thought they were most vulnerable a decade ago.