He doesn't need empathy. He needs to find a way through to a better advantage over AI. I'll give him compassion as he struggles through.

Creating static images (that do not require a significant amount of visual depth and perspective) is a dead art form. The market will accept flat looking images as long as they're drowning in detail, and AI can generate that.

I'm taking a stab at what's next, he needs to (take a stab too) and skip over the loss of love for an out-of-date computing skill.