Beyond UI: what’s next for designers in AI UX
Whenever an interviewer asks the [ridiculous] crystal ball question of “Where do you see yourself in 5 years?” my answer has always been and always will be “In a role that may not exist yet because design and the tech we work with is ever-evolving, and I evolve with it.” And, it’s pretty much been true every time.
And here we are again - designers sitting on the precipice of yet another tectonic shift to our roles. As AI interfaces evolve from buttons and boxes to prompts and generative canvases, the role of the designer is shifting radically. We’re moving beyond layout, beyond hierarchy, beyond even the visual language of UI into something more abstract, more systemic, and more powerful.
In AI-native experiences, the "interface" becomes a conversation. A prompt. A suggestion engine. A scaffold. A field for co-creation.
So where does that leave us, the designers?
It leaves us in the engine room, redefining what it means to design at all.
We design the logic behind the experience: Not just how something looks, but how it thinks. That means defining prompt patterns, intent trees, agent behaviors, and decision boundaries.
We shape invisible systems: From token structures to component grammar, we’re building the underlying frameworks that agents use to generate and adapt UI in real-time. Think: design systems as datasets. Interfaces as ephemeral expressions of structured logic.
We author constraints as creativity tools: In a world where anything can be generated, constraints are the new craft. Designers define the rails that shape useful, beautiful, safe outcomes from generative systems.
We curate, tune, and steer: Think less Figma and more flight deck. The designer becomes the creative director of interaction models—training agents, refining outputs, and creating guardrails for quality, inclusivity, and clarity.
We stay rooted in human nuance: As ever, design is problem-solving at its core. We still listen, test, prototype, and refine. But instead of pixels, we’re refining experiences through language, data structures, and dynamic scaffolds.
What’s next?
We become:
Prompt architects
Experience composers
System choreographers
AI behavior designers
We don't disappear. We evolve.
Design has always been about making the complex useful and the invisible intuitive. AI just gives us new tools, and new responsibility, to do exactly that.
Want more? I delve deeper into this topic in discussing Design is a Superpower, and Content Strategy in the AI Landscape.
You can also explore all of my posts on AI.
