"Will AI will replace designers?"
Remember the tale of two cities? "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times."
During a recent trip back home, I managed to get caught in the wave of the heated launch of DeepSeek.
Everyone on the street, in a cafe, friends, and families were talking about the same things. “I asked DeepSeek this…, and oh my god, look at the answers it gave me. It’s brilliant”. “Oh, my job is going to be replaced by DeepSeek.”
And, of course, with typical Chinese parents who still don’t have a clear clue about what I do, the question that kept coming up became, “Is AI going to replace your job”?
If I were honest with myself, I’m probably a bit late into the game, as I only recently started experimenting with the various developments of AI and only recently began to ponder whether AI will replace my job.
Here are my 2 cents. (OK, there’ll be a twist.)
It was the worst of times.
I, too, experienced some AI fatigue and techno-anxiety about all the emerging tools until I asked my GPT questions like, “What makes your thinking different from mine?”
AI will replace us designers for a large proportion of the job descriptions. There are tools for research, storyboarding, wire-framing, UI generations… even prompt-to-code without the entire product development cycle.
In the worst of times, AI penetrates our work in various ways. Here’s what I’ve tried -
Use it as a companion/co-pilot
This is where we use it to rewrite the UX copy.
Synthesising UX research
Making user, market or competitor discovery
Generating design/branding concepts
Creating storyboards
Validating UX decisions
Creating low- to high-fi designs
….
Use AI tools to build - I’ve tried using cursor.ai to make things like
A Figma plugin to translate all unique strings on a file
A simple iOS app to do daily success journals
I’ve also tested tools like Lovable to turn ideas into prototypes quickly.
Embed AI into tools. Inspired by a friend's startup project, I tried using cursor.ai to build a functional test app - Knowing, embedding an API to get personalised, customised responses.
AN IMPORTANT SIDE NOTE - if you feel stressed, confused, detached, or disconnected from your body (especially women), check out my other space @
I’m building something to resolve some of my pain points and, hopefully, helping others in the process.
What does that mean?
When the techno-landscape matures even more, a large portion of our workflow can be automated.
We don’t need a conventional product development cycle or an entire product team to build something from 0 to 1.
A shift in WoW - Yes, launching products with one person is now possible. I’m still testing it out, but people have done plenty.
I came across Jakob Neilsen’s article “Hello AI Agents: Goodbye UI Design, RIP Accessibility”. He shared much more constructional thoughts on the future of AI, where the whole interface and interactive pattern will shift with the emergence of AI agents.
The worst of times. Aye?
It was the best of times.
To begin with, these points listed by my chatGPT remain somewhat true -
“What AI Won’t Replace:”
“1. Human-centered design thinking”
”2. Ethical and strategic decision making”
“3. Originality and creative innovation”
“4. The art of storytelling and emotional connection.”
It is true that emotions and contexts remain lacking, at least based on observation during my encounters with AI tools or projects. Think about it. How would your AI agent/tool understand the beauty and awe of a 6 PM golden hour sunset with a pinkish, blueish gradient sky and a fading bright red sun?
It also doesn’t have the impulse to take a photo and share it with a loved one. It can reproduce or make the scene fancier, indeed. Still, the memories of that same imagery could be vastly different. And because we feel it, we know it - AI won’t be able to empathise with a person like we do.
Moreover, AI still struggles to grasp the full context we’re working with. The more tangible example is complex B2B software with magnitudes of domain knowledge, contexts and insights. Unless the entire platform is natively built with embedded intelligence tools, with full access to its data, logs, history, etc., it will still require our input and guidance. i.e., leverage the tool as a better co-pilot.
As for strategic decision-making, think about the unpredictabilities - what keeps people awake at night, what crashes companies overnight. Even the toolmakers themselves are still trying to figure out better ways to predict the unpredictability. Combining the context factors, the decision-making will remain heavily on us, who are well aware of the market, competitors, trends, gossip over a dinner table, and a deal made over a match. Designers must think about the biases and context of AI’s suggestions - we must be the decision-makers.
What if an AI agent could do everything on users’ behalf, and they would no longer need an interface? What happens to us product designers?
How exciting! Welcome to the unbounded, endless, imaginary land of opportunities.
We won’t need FAQs or product docs because our AI tools can find the answers.
We won’t need to debate on a checkout flow in e-commerce anymore. AI agents can complete that process for us.
We won’t need to book travel, plan itineraries, book hotels and transportation, or liaise with local guides—the AI agent will know the best season to travel, the best price, and a suitable location to your taste, and will sort out the communications on your behalf.
We need to rethink HCI - perhaps jobs won’t be desk-bound anymore.
Perhaps it will make information more accessible to people than before.
Perhaps people get to return to nature more than before.
Kinda can’t wait to see how the next generation of digital products unfolds.
Now, perhaps, a return to the first principle.
Design. A process of intentionally shaping experiences, objects, and systems to solve problems or create value.
Wikipedia states that a design is the concept or proposal for an object, process, or system. The word design refers to something that is or has been intentionally created by a thinking agent, and is sometimes used to refer to the inherent nature of something – its design.
Think historically. The discipline of Design and the role of designers existed long before we called ourselves “Product Designers.” The boom of the internet in the 90s didn’t replace designers. Why would AI now?
I choose this—shaping experience, objects, and systems, solving problems, and creating value. AI could replace the operational processes on a modernised job description for a product designer - I would love that. As a thinking agent with a profoundly different neural network than AI, I choose to side with the first principle of design and create intentionally.
It is the best of times. It is the worst of times.
Yes, AI will replace designers.
The executors, instruction takers, operators, and followers—perhaps even the ways of working, team model, and organisational structure.
May the shift happen. Meanwhile,
Create.
Explore.
Be genuine.
Stay original.
There’s always room to make better of the world around us :)
Watch out, too. Don’t let AI think all your thinking; create all your creativity. My fellow thinking agents - the brain remains as our superpower.
No, AI did not write this post for me. Perhaps that’s why it reads funky and can be a lot better. Now, for my brain’s benefit, perhaps also yours, let me know your ideas on the future of AI x designers.