Jelena Racković · · 2 min read · AI
AI is a tool like any other: what it changes in design work, and what it doesn’t
I have been in this profession long enough to hear the end of design announced several times. Desktop publishing was going to make designers unnecessary. Then templates. Then website builders. Then design systems, ironically. Each time, the tool changed the work, and each time the profession adapted and grew. AI is a much bigger shift than most of those, but I find it helpful to see it in that line.
What it changes
AI changes the speed of execution dramatically. First drafts, variations, copy, prototypes and documentation can be produced in a fraction of the time. It lowers the cost of trying things, which means more ideas can be tested before a decision is made. It changes what clients expect, because they know that a first version can appear quickly. And it changes the shape of teams, because some routine tasks simply disappear.
What it doesn’t change
It doesn’t change the need to understand a problem: who has it, why it matters and what constraints surround it. It doesn’t change the responsibility for decisions, because a client will always want a person to stand behind them. It doesn’t replace taste, judgement or the ability to say no to the many plausible options and choose the right one. And it doesn’t replace the relationship of trust between a designer and a client, built over years of being useful.
Using it like any other tool
So I use AI the way I have used every tool before it: wherever it makes the work better or faster, and never as a replacement for thinking. I learn it properly, I watch where it helps and where it misleads, and I keep the decisions for myself. That is not resistance. It is the same craft that has always adapted to new tools without losing its core.
The profession continues
The designers who struggle will be the ones who defined themselves by a task the tool now does. The ones who thrive will be those who define themselves by the problems they solve. That has been true with every tool so far, and I see no reason it will be different this time.
Is your design system starting to fade?
I’d like to hear about it →