Artificial intelligence is increasingly being integrated into professional audio production workflows, yet a gap persists between the tools developers produce and the requirements of practising sound designers. This paper investigates this gap through a mixed-methods study comprising a survey of 76 practitioners and follow-up semi-structured interviews with 20 industry professionals. Results were analysed using descriptive statistical analysis and thematic analysis to identify patterns across both datasets. Five themes emerged from our analysis: Context, Workflow, Potential, Risks, and Right Use. Our work indicates that current AI tools perform adequately in fast-consumption media contexts but lack the narrative sophistication required for high-end sound design (films, immersive experiences etc). Practitioners demonstrate a preference for assistive, task-specific applications, particularly in audio restoration and library management, over end-to-end generative systems. This work contributes to the on-going discussion on the use of AI and AI-enhanced tools in the creative industries. We report on the current status of the field from the point of view of sound designers and creative audio practitioners, and offer a set of recommendation for sound technologist and developers based on our findings to guide the development of more informed AI tools for sound design.

翻译：人工智能正日益融入专业音频制作工作流，但开发者产出的工具与实际声音设计师的需求之间仍存在差距。本研究通过混合方法考察这一差距，包括对76位从业者的问卷调查及对20位行业专业人士的后续半结构化访谈。采用描述性统计分析和主题分析对结果进行解析，以识别两组数据集中的模式。分析得出五大主题：情境、工作流、潜力、风险与正确使用。研究表明，当前AI工具在快速消费型媒体场景中表现尚可，但缺乏高端声音设计（如电影、沉浸式体验等）所需的叙事复杂性。从业者更偏好辅助性、任务导向型应用（尤其在音频修复与素材库管理领域），而非端到端生成系统。本工作为创意产业中AI及AI增强工具的应用讨论提供了新视角，从声音设计师与创意音频实践者的立场报告该领域现状，并基于研究发现为声音技术专家与开发者提出系列建议，以指导更具针对性的专业AI工具研发。