Generative AI (GAI) is transforming user-generated content (UGC) communities, yet its impact on professional creators remains underexplored. This study examines how the platform-level integration of a GAI illustration tool into an online artist community influences designers' original content contributions and how these effects vary by designer characteristics.
We use 12 months of panel data on 43,587 active designers from a leading online creative platform. Leveraging the platform's introduction of a free GAI illustration tool in October 2022 as a natural experiment, we employ a difference-in-differences design to estimate its effect on designers' original work postings.
The results indicate that integrating the GAI tool increases original content contributions by 25%. This effect is driven by multiple mechanisms, including competitive pressure, learning-oriented engagement, and copyright concerns. In particular, competitive pressure induces strategic effort reallocation, leading designers to reduce contributions within their primary domains and shift effort toward less-affected creative areas. Moderation analyses further show that this reallocation effect is stronger among newer and lower-reputation designers.
Amid growing interest in the impact of GAI, this study centers on the creative domain, shifting the focus from GAI's influence on creative processes to its effects on professional content contributions in online communities. It identifies key mechanisms – competitive pressure, learning-oriented engagement, and copyright concerns – arising from platform-level GAI integration. The findings provide theoretical and practical insights for managing creative platforms in the era of GAI integration.
