> how we'll go from novice to expert

You spent the proverbial 10k hours like before. I don't know by AI has to lead to the lack of learning. I don't find people stop learning digital painting so far, even digital painting, from my perspective, is even more "solved" than programming by machines.

I heard that Pixar had a very advanced facial expression simulation system a decade ago. But I am very willing to bet that when Pixar hires animators they still prefer someone who can animate by hand (either in Maya or frame-by-frame on paper).