Between the Canvas and the Algorithm: How Generative AI Is Reshaping Artistic Identity Among Fine Arts Students in Pakistan

Abstract

This qualitative study examines how emerging Fine Arts practitioners in Pakistan interpret the growing presence of generative artificial intelligence (AI) in creative practice and how that encounter relates to artistic identity, originality, authorship, emotional response, career expectations, and educational preparation. The study draws on 12 individual online semi-structured interviews with nine current Fine Arts students and three recent graduates associated with the University of Sargodha. Participants were recruited through non-probability convenience sampling with voluntary participation. Interviews were conducted in English, Urdu, or a combination of both, audio-recorded with consent, transcribed, anonymized, and translated where necessary. The data were examined through thematic analysis that moved from familiarization and initial coding to broader categories, candidate themes, review, and final interpretation. Six interconnected themes were identified: AI as a supportive creative assistant; emotional ambivalence involving excitement, curiosity, and anxiety; human emotion and lived experience as central to artistic identity and creativity; negotiation of originality and authorship; career anxiety alongside confidence in human adaptability; and uneven institutional guidance in an AI-influenced creative environment. Across participant accounts, AI was valued for information, brainstorming, visual references, idea generation, and speed, while human judgment, lived experience, intention, and personal contribution remained central to meaningful artistic practice. The findings are synthesized through the study-derived idea of negotiated artistic identity, understood here as an interpretive description rather than a validated theory. The study contributes context-specific qualitative evidence from a Pakistani Fine Arts setting and supports the need for critical AI literacy, clearer guidance on authorship and disclosure, and continued attention to foundational artistic skills.