Adobe Illustrator CC

Pros

I like teh fact that as a designer, i can create a multitude of art work with Adobe illustrator, ranging from video games, brand logos and promotional materials.
I like it because i can also use it for designs & topography such as business cards, clothing, billboards, artistic & stylistic illustrations.
It is integrated with Adobe creative cloud which makes it easier for sharing my art projects and creative assets.
I love its capability to create pixel-perfect designs, clear lines are automatically aligned to the grid.
I get access to over 90 million graphics, images and templates through Adobe Stock.
It makes me and other designers i know to start our artwork from fresh, clean pages and also easy to edit ready made artworks or templates.
Also like the option where i can convert my designs to PDF files and other types of image files, which i find very comfortable to work with any type of format my clients request for.
It offers great compatibility with othe Adobe programs like the Adobe Photoshop and Premiere.
No bounds to the creativity i can imagine to make as long as you know how to make use of the tools.

Cons

It takes a while to load each time I try to open up the application.
It also slows down other programs on my computer becuase its a massive program, especially when I have both Illustrator & Photoshop running at the time.
Sometimes the main colour paletes won't show in the upper taskbar which can be a pain when you have to figure out how to get it, especially for newbies.
The hotkeys are weird compared to other programs like photoshop, especially when you are trying to use hotkey to export.
Not really suitable for beginners, requires training to know how to use. Sometimes I had to use google to figure out where some certain tools are when I just started using the program.
Adobe lacks a full mobile verwsion of Illustrator, which would be very helpful & handy when working on mobile or on an ipad.
The most recent version interface is very annoying as I can't find tools where i expect to find them, including critical tools.

Pros

As a full stack web developer, the tools that illustrator offer for creating Scalable Vector Graphics is unparalleled. With the importance of creating media that 'travels' well between both mobile and desktop environments, you'll be hard pressed to an offering that fits all circumstances with the ease that Illustrator offers. The joy of exporting your SVGs so simply to fit wherever you need them has been honed (or perhaps even owned) by years of Adobe's feature rich development and progressive enhancement. From Macromedia Shockwave with Flash forwarding to HTML 5 adoption, Adobe Illustrator has been at the forefront of web media design.

Cons

As with any design tool, there's always a learning curve. Though, that be said, with the sheer amount of online tutorials and videos, its truly quite hard to find fault with Adobe Illustrator... Once you've got the basics, the sky truly is the limit.... From moving from GIMP (a great free choice), to Illustrator, I'd definitely recommend the jump across the the Adobe camp.

Pros

So, I've been an AI user for now almost 10 years. I've used it at it's worst, at it's best and at it's "ok" moments. It's powerful and the type of work that you can create is really just limitless. There has been a significant effort in onboarding users whenever it gets a design overhaul or new features are added. I've found that a lot of these updates do tend to boost my ability to perform or create work at a faster speed, and same goes when making edits. I'm a heavy pathfinder user and the ability to just tweak my workplace to my needs, adding different windows and condensing them into one section has been a huge time saver. So in terms of granting you the ability to really modify the space to your liking, it's great.

Cons

I think one of the aspects about illustrator that has over time made it a more difficult tool to rely on has been the constant updates. Yes, those updates are sometimes great and very much needed, but there is no onboarding and the existing tour points hold so much information, it's hard to keep up with it.

I think generally speaking, I want to also be able to use the same shortcuts I have been using over time with the software, so when certain aspects of it change - sometimes it does affect my ability to perform at the same speed. I think more efforts need to be done to really create a focused on boarding for users when you introduce new features.

Pros

The nice thing about Adobe Illustrator is you can do anything you want, as far as manipulating graphics and creating any digital artwork or illustration imaginable. It's so versatile in what you can do, that it also can seem very complex to the novice.

But if you stick with it and use it consistently or take some tutorials, once you learn the ins and outs of Adobe Illustrator, you begin to realize what it's capable of. I have used Inkscape and affinity designer and though I use affinity designer (due to the simplicity and quickness at some tasks), I always turn to Adobe Illustrator when I need to do more complex tasks.

I am old school, and typically like drawing by hand. The great thing about digital design is you can still get a tablet and draw by hand if you like. This is obvious to many people but some may not be aware or haven't made the jump over to trying a drawing tablet yet. If you haven't tried one and you love drawing with traditional media, you are going to love working with a tablet in Illustrator.

Cons

The biggest con I can think of is the learning curve. When first starting to use Adobe Illustrator is it can seem very complex. So when you're new, is a pretty big learning curve. With that said, I still am learning after 5+ years.

For this reason, I recommend taking some tutorials or classes to understand what illustrator is capable of and for learning what every tool does. Taking tutorials also gives you an insight into how to creatively use tools for different purposes.

I know when I first learned Illustrator. I had a good idea of what most tools did. But I just wasn't aware of the different use cases on how to creatively construct my artwork, actually using the tools. It was something that slowed me down, compared to just grabbing a pencil and paper and sketching out my vision.

But once you learn to use the different tools together, you start to get a flow going and you get quicker with time.

Pros

Writing about Illustrator is very passionate. One of the most important Pros of the program is its solid foundation, built over decades. Yes! Decades.

Therefore, the main resources of the illustration industry are here. Shapes, Fills, lines, vectors, compositions. Ease of basic understanding of features.

Learning curve, of the basic resources is fast. Numerous editing possibilities (the limit is your creation)
high degree of SVG compatibility.

These are, for me, the best reasons to use AI since 2011.

Cons

Against the grain, AI presents a high consumption of computer resources. RAM, VRAM, Processor, these are abundantly consumed by the program. The more you have, the more it will consume.

With the exception of the SVG format, any non-native format will have serious compatibility problems, causing constant breaks.

The learning curve for advanced items is complex and requires more effort than other programs in the same category.

However, in my opinion, the X of the question is: Is Adobe Illustrator the program of the future for vectors? or was he stuck in time and his Status Quo?