Recently we did a week long research sprint at Brooks Running, lead by UX Researcher Kelsey Ashenbeck called Innovation Days. Naturally the UX team chose AI in Design. One of our main takeaways from the week was Ioana Teleanu’s exact words: AI won’t replace designers. A designer using AI—will. And here’s why:
🤖 It can't figure out what problems to solve yet. AI has trouble understanding context, and because we're still in the age of narrow AI.
🤖 AI lacks empathy and a good understanding of human psychology.
🤖 its ability for creativity and imagination is subject to debate. Even though AI can successfully simulate human creativity by putting together existing elements to create something new, in a similar fashion in which people do that, that human special spark comes from imagination: To be able to think of something new. And if you think about it, just looking at AI-generated art will sort of tell you it's been generated by AI.
🤖 AI still needs a lot of guidance, handholding, and gets lost outside its context. When asked to generate a working prototype using FigmaAI during our Innovation Days design sprint, the design team found it too about the same amount of time to prompt the bot to do what we wanted than it would have to to it ourselves.
So why are we so worried about AI taking our jobs?
AI listens to our commands and executes them, hopefully as instructed. In the world of the new AI systems, the user doesn't tell the computer what to do, but instead they tell it the outcome they hope to achieve. Jakob Nielsen calls this *intent-based outcome specification* and argues that, compared to traditional command-based interactions, this paradigm completely reverses the locus of control. This is incredibly powerful, and when prompted correctly can automate processes from hours to minutes. AI can already support us with making better decisions faster by reducing our cognitive load from having to process large volumes of data, spend time on more meaningful and creative work, kickstart our work projects, artifacts faster, increase the accuracy of our efforts, and so much more.
There is no doubt that AI is going to change the way we work as designers. Instead of worrying about the future of AI, I am focusing on AI as the first new UI paradigm in 60 years.
I just wrapped up IxDF’s AI in Design course. I am learning two ways to utilize AI in design:
"Designing for AI" means that we incorporate AI into the solutions that we design. Don’t think of products based on detailed commands; rather, express goals and let AI work out the steps. This changes the way we think about products and solutions.
"Designing with AI" means that we can incorporate AI into our design process. We can think of it as a partner and collaborator. We can use AI as an exoskeleton and augment our capabilities.
A large part of being a designer is selling the value of your design and design decisions. It is just as important as ever to communicate to employers the value of human creativity and empathy.
An exciting exploratory time, where designers will have to stay ahead of the AI learning curve to be competitive. But when have designers not had to stay up with design trends?
Designers aren’t going to be replaced by AI—but our work is going to look very different. As I learned in the IxDF AI in Design course, designers will need to take on more of a managerial mindset: guiding AI, curating outputs, and giving feedback as it generates content. This could allow us to focus more on strategy, empathy, and human-centered problem solving—but only if we stay intentional and critical about the outputs we accept.
That said, I don’t think relying too heavily on AI is the right path for design. It risks losing the deep problem-solving and creativity that come naturally from the human brain. Noman Bashir from MIT highlights the environmental cost: generative AI training clusters can consume seven or eight times more energy than a typical computing workload. Beyond sustainability, AI still needs careful oversight. Even for small tasks like copywriting or synthesizing data, I constantly check its outputs for accuracy, context, and alignment with design principles. For me, the future of design isn’t about handing over control—it’s about using AI thoughtfully, as a tool to amplify human judgment rather than replace it.
