Design is a superpower in the era of AI
With the proliferation of AI, design is sitting at an inflection point. There’s an influx of tools that, on the surface, appear to democratize design. Anyone can generate a layout, a wireframe, or a shiny new interface in minutes. Which sounds great until you really dig in, and realize a lot of what’s created is just objectively bad design. And with companies rushing to replace people with AI, there will be no one to refine or improve the AI dumping ground. Bad design will ship. There’s just no getting around it.
But it’s not all bad news. There’s opportunity here, too.
Design is not, and has never been, about just pushing pixels. At its core, it’s about thinking deeply and broadly, and seeing things in ways others don’t see. It’s about understanding people, context, and possibility. It’s about making the complex navigable and the future tangible. And right now, that’s the superpower that smart organizations will latch onto, and create opportunity for great designers to elevate the craft.
Why questionable design will start to show up everywhere
AI democratizes output. That means the barrier to “making” is nearly gone. But when everyone can generate, mediocrity prevails. There’s more noise, more clutter, more “good enough” artifacts that maybe look okay, but don’t actually solve problems.
And when bad design scales, the cracks start to show:
Products end up not meeting real user needs
Screens look flashy, but flows collapse when things get complex
Fragmented systems and siloed products create confusing experiences instead of connected ones
Bad design = strategic leverage for designers
Good design isn’t solely about speed, it’s about direction. The value of design in this world of AI is less about who can add the flashiest components into a Figma file, and more about:
Defining the vision - What does success and innovation look like for our users, product, and business?
Framing the art of the possible - Where should we push boundaries? Where should we pull back? Why?
Connecting the dots - Across tech stacks, data silos, and teams, design is situated in a prime spot to zoom out and bring the bigger picture together.
Making it real - Turning abstract strategies into tangible artifacts that share vision, build alignment, and shape roadmaps.
And here’s the piece most people miss: AI is only as good as the thinking that goes into it. The prompts, the context, the framing - those aren’t throwaway inputs. They’re design choices in themselves. Designers, with their ability to ask the right questions, structure problems, and anticipate outcomes, have a natural edge in shaping AI into something useful instead of another pile of noise.
The pixel paradox and the last mile
While design is not just pixel pushing, those pixels still matter. When we exist in a space where anyone can generate “good enough,” and mediocre (or worse) becomes standard, the really good experiences - the ones where designers took the time and used their expertise to refine the details of hierarchy, spacing, typography, rhythm, and motion - those are ones that will stand out.
But refinement alone isn’t the endgame. Constant pixel-tweaking and endless iteration through interaction design can easily become redundant. AI can already generate variations at scale. What sets designers apart now is not who can produce the 37th version of a button or who can continually refine a navigation pattern, but who can think, strategize, and apply judgment to know which version actually matters, and why.
The real power is in getting the last mile right: taking an experience from functional to delightful, from passable to transformative. That’s the leap AI can’t automate. It still needs a human eye, a human brain, and a human sense of empathy to carry it across the finish line. That last mile is where trust is built, loyalty is earned, and products break out from the sea of sameness.
The takeaway
At this point, the AI cat is out of the bag, and bad design is coming, but at the same time, it gives great designers leverage. The ones who can think, frame, and lead will use these tools to accelerate workflows and speed to impact. Design work doesn’t go away. Instead, it shifts into less time fighting through production bottlenecks and more time shaping what matters. And most designers get pretty excited about that kind of work.
As we move forward into an AI saturated environment, design is not decoration. It’s not “nice to have.” It’s not the Make it Pretty Committee that you bring in at the last step. Design is the superpower that turns possibility into strategy, strategy into a real solution, and the ability to take AI outputs and expertly refine them from “good enough” to groundbreaking.
Design isn’t the only superpower in this age of AI. Content strategy and content design are also more important than ever - read my take on content strategy and AI. I’ve also broken down the three facets of AI for design (process, product, platform) to frame where this is headed.
Want more? Explore all of my posts on AI.
