There was a moment not long ago when I found myself grieving.
Not for a person or a project, but for the design process I’d known and loved for over two decades. The sudden tidal wave of AI into our tools, workflows, and even creative decisions felt threatening. Like we were witnessing the slow burial of what it meant to design: to gather ideas, iterate, struggle, and finally arrive at something impactful.
But over the past few months, something shifted. And it wasn’t just the tools. It was my mindset.
The truth is, we’re no longer just designers. We’re directors.
We’re orchestrating workflows, prompting outcomes, and guiding systems. The craft hasn’t disappeared, it’s evolved. Today, prompting isn’t a separate skill. It’s a new design language. And those who learn it are stepping into a whole new kind of creative control.
AI is moving fast. Unsettlingly fast. But designers have always adapted. Change isn’t new to us. What’s new is the speed. It can feel like a threat, but it’s actually a huge opportunity. The best designers I know are leaning in, learning the tools, and expanding what’s possible.
The latest tool I've been using is Figma Make (which is now out of beta). Watching real-time, interactive interfaces come to life—error states, filters, clickable flows—all generated with just a few well-structured prompts, is wild. Sure, it’s a little clunky sometimes. But as designers, we already know how to give feedback. The only difference is now we’re giving it to an AI model instead of a teammate. The core communication skill is the same.
“This isn’t the death of design. This is design, unlocked.”
AI isn’t replacing our instincts, it’s amplifying them. Knowing what works, spotting imbalance, and making smart decisions still matters. With more ideas generated faster, our role is to guide, refine, and choose what’s right. Some worry everything will start to look the same, but design has always flirted with uniformity. AI might accelerate the pace, but good designers will continue to break the mold. To push boundaries. Care about their craft.
We’re not at the end. We’re at the edge.
The edge of a new era where design is:
→ More iterative
→ More strategic
→ More cross-functional
→ And yes, more AI-assisted
This isn’t the death of design. This is design, unlocked.
As designers, we’ve always been problem-solvers, and now we have an exponentially larger (and growing) toolset to solve with.
So no, I’m not grieving anymore. I’m building. Prompting. Directing.
And I’ve never felt more creative!
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