Paid $80 for a Midjourney subscription last year, still not sure if it was worth it for my Etsy shop

I run a small print shop in Portland and figured AI art would save me hours on design work. The first few generations looked great, but I spent another $40 tweaking prompts to get something that didn't look like a glitchy dream. Eventually I used one piece and a customer commented it looked 'off' - ended up going back to my $15 Canva subscription. Has anyone else found AI art more hassle than it's worth for actual products?

3 comments

3 Comments

viola_lopez301mo ago

300% agree with the melty hands thing. I used an AI piece for a mug design and got a review saying the fingers looked like sad pasta. Sold three mugs total from that batch and stopped using AI images after that.

gray_morgan1mo ago

The real problem isn't the hands or the melty textures, it's that customers can sense when a design didn't come from a real creative process. People buy prints and mugs because they want something that feels human, even if it's just a simple vector illustration. AI art has this hollow quality that's hard to describe but easy to spot once you're looking for it. I'd bet that customer who said it looked "off" couldn't explain why either, but their gut knew something was missing. That's the part that makes the subscription a waste, not the hands.

the_rowan1mo ago

Nope. Sold an AI print once and the buyer said the hands looked "melty." Never again.