Designers face a significant transformation as AI tools redefine our creative profession. While many designers welcome these possibilities, others fear the "devaluation of craft and process." This divide points to a central question: In an era where AI increasingly handles execution, how will the profession of design evolve—and will designers lead that evolution or merely respond to it? I believe AI-aided design represents not the death-knell of our profession but its next leap—one that will reward those who embrace the fact that creativity and technology have always advanced together.

The Divided Design Community

When I use something that brings me joy and allows me to build things I never thought I could build by myself, then give those things I made to people and watch the joy on their faces, I don't see an issue. I really don't. This is the experience I have with the current AI tools.

AI tools like Cursor, Lovable, and Bolt are changing how we create digital experiences. They're enabling us to experiment, design, and build in ways that were previously impossible for a single person without deep knowledge in multiple areas. 

No matter the coding language, no matter the platform, no matter the initial barriers - I and others have been turning ideas into reality with amazing results. Those executions have only increased in their complexity and their ease of delivery. 

For instance, I recently used Cursor to develop a complex interactive animation system that would have taken me days or weeks to code manually or would have required me to collaborate with a specialised developer. Within an hour, I had created a responsive, physics-based interaction. Experiences like this excite me because I now have a direct route to create in ways I have always wanted to.

But not everyone shares this excitement. Note: For this piece I am not going to address the very real concerns and ethical considerations of generative AI (data sources, ownership of generated designs, etc.) but I am working on a response to that. For this essay, I am focused on the tools and their potential impact.

A Tale of Two Perspectives

On one side, designers are thrilled about these new capabilities—experimenting rapidly, building fully-functional prototypes (and sometimes products) with real data in hours instead of weeks, and discovering creative possibilities they never would have found in “traditional” tools.

Others worry that these tools will lower the expectations about craft and precision. They are concerned that the fundamentals of design and the delivery of usable human-computer interfaces could wane. They see these AI tools as a threat to the craftsmanship that has defined the best of digital design. Critics worry that AI tools will lead to homogenised design solutions. They are also concerned with the existential threat that as these tools proliferate - that designers will be left behind.

These conflicting perspectives aren't new to our profession—in fact, they've emerged with every technological and tool shift that drives “design democratisation”.

And both sides can be right.

Design democratization refers to the process by which design tools, methodologies, and decision-making power become easily accessible to non-professional designers.

It is true that “good enough” design has proliferated because of the availability of these design tools. But… this is not new. We have been here before.

How Design Has Always Evolved With Technology

In the mid-90’s the advent of “desktop publishing” forced significant change in the working approach of designers.

Next up were the "Web 2.0" and "Mobile First" design approaches which meant the adoption of Photoshop, Illustrator, Sketch, and now Figma.

But we can also view Squarespace and Wix as similar tools but with different implementation. These services also allow designers and non-designers to create professional-looking websites with drag-and-drop ease.

(Note: And while detractors will point out early WYSIWYG editors like Macromedia Dreamweaver or Fireworks and their bloated code outputs, I remind them that while on the surface it seems very similar, Generative AI is a completely different technology.)

Significant changes in marketing design are also happening because of tools like Canva. Giving marketing managers and others the ability to test at scale with design systems intact.

Each of these waves the past 30 years has sparked similar concerns about the death of craft and existential angst that design is being commoditised further. Yet the design profession not only has survived—it has thrived the past three decades. Each tool has led to new levels of democratization and expanded the need for design experts. Why is this? Tools might make it easier to make “something good enough” but “great design” remains elusive. Great design is hard. And that gap between good design and great design will always provide opportunities for design professionals.

It is true design roles such as graphic design have decreased 4% annually since 2015. But the UK Design Council’s 2022 report showed that digital design jobs have been at the forefront of employment growth, increasing by 138% in recent years, growing faster than both the design sector and the wider economy. The same report quantified this significant expanded need, showing 77% of designers now work in traditional non-design sectors, from finance to healthcare.

In 2022 U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics began recognising “web and digital interface designer” as a distinct occupation and is projecting 40% growth through 2030. (Though, it should be noted that was before a lot of the AI tools began breaking into the mainstream.)

Design democratisation has reduced what we might call “traditional design roles” it has also expanded the reach of design into industries that need our help. The biggest challenge we can see from these changes is that entry-level design jobs have been reduced, while more strategic design roles have expanded. That shift necessitates a re-evaluation of our design education process. (Yet another topic I will not dive into here.)

And while history shows us that the design profession adapts to new tools without eliminating the need for expertise, the current AI revolution differs fundamentally from these previous shifts. It's not just about making existing tasks easier—it's about transforming the very nature of how design work will get done.

AI's Unique Value: Why This Is Different

The major shift between previous tool changes and these new AI tools is that it is not just a change in tool but also a change to a fundamental brand new technology (GenAI) that brings different benefits.

Photoshop, Illustrator, Sketch, and Figma are all based on the direct and precise manipulation of pixels and objects on screen.

The current crop of AI tools do manipulate pixels - but the approach is indirect and imprecise.

Everything in large language models is built on (surprise!) language—and inherently words are an imprecise vessel for storing meaning. When I describe what I want to build, the AI interprets those words based on probability, not pixel-perfect precision. 

And here's the revelation: for creative tasks and explorations this imprecision isn't a bug. It's THE feature.

AI as a Creative Partner

My experience with Cursor illustrates the transformative potential of AI-aided design. Recently, I set out to create an interactive animation featuring a rising sun. Using traditional methods, this would have required a day or so coding (Remember I do not know how to code). With Cursor, I completed it in minutes.

More importantly, the process revealed AI's unique value as a creative partner. When I prompted for a "rising sun," the system not only created the animation I requested but also automatically adjusted the background brightness as the sun ascended—an enhancement I hadn't prompted. It blurred the edges of the “sun”, provided a gradient, and more.

Similarly, during my experiment with P5.js and organic animations, I prompted for a pulsing red dot that yielded an interpretation different from my mental image, opening new lines of consideration around how to implement the experience. And it was better for it.

The space between what I ask for and what the AI produces creates room for serendipity and discovery. It's more like sketching or shaping clay than placing pixels on a screen. It feels organic, conversational, and, to be quite frank, down right refreshing.

From Monologue to Creative Dialogue

Traditional design tools operate on a monologue model: I do something, I see something, I change something. It's me manipulating the computer’s pixels directly and, again, precisely as I deem fit. I then go get feedback from peers.

AI tools create a dialogue: I do something, the computer responds, and now I can respond to it. I don't know exactly what the next output will be. It might be completely wrong, completely right, or—most interestingly—it might show me something I didn't know I wanted. Or inspire me in new ways. Or leave me underwhelmed. It is interpretation and re-interpretation.

This fundamentally changes the creative process with a machine. It's a conversation rather than a monologue. This benefit is especially true for designers who work alone or have their own passion projects.

As my friend and fellow design leader Jiri Jerabek pointed out to me - “(AI) should be in the best interest of every designer as it will enable them to create more, have more fun, explore the unexplored and unexpected. So instead of “AI is creative instead of you,” it's more like “your creativity multiplied by AI.”

The Enduring Value of Design Expertise

What truly differentiates great designers—and what AI cannot replace—is our unique capacity for nonlinear creative thinking, strategic consideration, and cultivated taste. This refined sensibility, developed through years of critical evaluation and immersion in quality design, allows us to distinguish between merely adequate solutions (good) and truly exceptional ones (great). Far from diminishing this expertise, the AI-aided design makes it more crucial than ever.

One of my beliefs is that the distance of bad design to good design is shorter than the distance between good design and great design.

As AI democratises design tools, the baseline of acceptable quality will rise, but paradoxically, this will widen the gap between good and great design. My hypothesis is this: When acceptable mediocrity becomes easier to achieve, the designer's discerning consideration becomes the essential competitive advantage.

While I embrace the joy these new tools bring, they fundamentally transform the means of creation without changing what makes design truly outstanding. The “craft of design” is not obsolete—it is the very differentiator that will separate leaders from followers in a world where everyone has access to powerful creative technology.

And with that, the asks to designers to be more strategic than ever.

Balancing Efficiency with Excellence

AI tools dramatically compress the cycle between ideation, creation, and impact. Rather than spending weeks building consensus for a creative direction, we can now rapidly prototype and demonstrate tangible results. The fundamental think-make-learn process remains intact, but accelerates substantially, with phases overlapping and informing each other more dynamically than ever before.

However, this acceleration demands vigilance. We've already witnessed how SaaS development has blurred discovery and delivery phases, with beta releases increasingly launched as finished products—sometimes justifiably, but often due to stakeholder impatience and market pressures. The past century's productivity gains offer a cautionary tale: despite exponential efficiency improvements, we work longer hours than previous generations, cramming more output into the same timeframes without shared equal benefits. When we prioritise velocity without thoughtful consideration, we risk creating systems with profound negative consequences, as the social media landscape has shown time and time again.

Our greatest risk lies in pursuing speed to such an extent that "good enough" displaces "great," leading to a gradual erosion of quality and impact. To navigate this challenge successfully, we must elevate craft excellence as our guiding principle—not in opposition to efficiency, but as its essential complement and counterbalance. Only by maintaining this balance can we harness AI's transformative potential while creating experiences that genuinely enhance life.This approach also provides our profession with a number of opportunities to lead.

Some implications (Not exhaustive. What are your thoughts?)

1. Design leaders and designers must start experimenting and adopting these tools faster so we can build the next generation of design teams and not be sidelined by the technology.
2. Design fundamentals and strategic needs are still intact. These skills actually become more important - not less.
3. System design is prioritised. Systems design will be extraordinarily important across all disciplines as the scaling of experiences and outputs will need to happen more rapidly to “keep up” with competitors.
4. There will be less “traditional design jobs” but new roles will become more “specialised” and highly coveted. Developing and curating prompts for image consistency and then combining with design systems will be highly valuable. There will be less of these jobs, but their impact could be huge.
5. Observational and behavioral user research remain very important. Utilising these skills to develop differentiated innovation will always be needed. Right now observation and gleaning insights from those observations is still a very human task.
6. Taste will win. The space between bad design and good design is smaller than the space between good design and great design. Taste is the road to great design and is only cultivated by being a life-long student of design.
7. Breaking Free from Sameness: AI offers an exciting possibility of breaking away from the homogenization of design. For decades, we've removed detail, ornamentation, and maximalism from our vocabulary. Everything really has started looking the same. AI tools offer an opportunity to make digital experiences feel different and alive again. We can reintroduce richness and uniqueness at scale, potentially leading to a new creative renaissance with highly personalised 1-to-1 experiences.
8. The tools and output process will always change: Just like I didn’t use Letraset or Quark Express when I started my professional career. The new crop of designers might only ever use AI tools. And the tools we use today will look much different a year or two from now.

Next Steps for You and Your Team

1. START EXPERIMENTING WITH AI-AIDED DESIGN TOOLS TODAY. As Jakob Nielsen said, "It's not AI that will take your job—it's a designer with AI." And it might not even be designers! This will not mean design jobs disappear- but it does mean that some jobs won’t exist or there are less of them. If you are a designer - learn. If you are a design leader - implement into your workflow and processes. Find out what works and what does not. Just start.
2. SHOW BUSINESS VALUE: I don't really care about "getting a seat at the table" anymore. You earn that seat by showing you can produce unique results for your customers AND the business. We have a slowing economy, and companies want results. If you know AI tools, you can experiment faster and help drive revenue growth through rapid iteration. This means developing capabilities to rapidly test multiple design hypotheses in hours instead of weeks, and focusing on metrics-driven iteration. AI tools can help us demonstrate value more quickly and tangibly. And our skillset provides us with the means to make it beautiful, usable, and emotionally impactful.
3. Build your own products. If you are challenged by the corporate environment, start creating. These tools make it possible for individual designers to build products without traditional engineering constraints. Build the companies you want to work for.
4. Practice what we preach. Designers love bringing change to others. We love thinking big and innovating - but when change comes to our profession, we retreat. Please embrace the change.

Leading the AI-Aided Design Future

The future of design isn't about choosing between human creativity and artificial intelligence—it's about mastering their powerful combination. Those who will define our field's next era won't necessarily be the most technically skilled or experienced designers, but those who boldly experiment at this intersection, leveraging AI to amplify their uniquely human abilities: taste, empathy, and strategic thinking.

As design leaders, we face a clear imperative: embrace these tools now, integrate them thoughtfully into our workflows, and demonstrate their business value through measurable impact. The transformation is already underway. The question isn't whether AI will change design—it already has. 41% of freelancers report AI tools have altered client expectations.

The real questions are how quickly you'll adapt, how skillfully you'll harness these new capabilities, and whether you'll lead this evolution or be left responding to others who do.

The most exciting design shift in decades awaits those ready to embrace it. I've made my choice. What will yours be?