It empowers them to go get food stamps. If you think companies will pay artists the way they have up until now I have a bridge to sell you. What happened to typists in the 70s will happen to a lot of fields thanks to AI. The skill to type fast / correct is not a worthwhile skill to have anymore, same will go with graphic designers. Clients will simply flip art until they find something they like and every one will be done with it.
I understand where you're coming from and I think such an outcome would be disastrous.
I'd be far happier seeing machines that automate sewage maintenance, garbage disposal and other unwanted or hazardous jobs, before automating elements of the creative pipeline, but unfortunately that's not the way it's happening.
I strongly believe we should invest more into robotics in order to change that balance. Advances in both fields are coming, but software operating in a virtual environment is simpler than hardware operating in a physical one.
The next decades are precisely where we'll need good economists to lead the way with intelligent (and humane!) policy. If we leave it to the shareholders and capitalists it could lead to a humanitarian disaster.