Has AI changed the quality bar for design?
The short answer is no. But let’s unpack that a bit more….
Every time a new tool lands in design, the same fear shows up: “This will make designers cut corners.” We heard it when Photoshop became accessible. We heard it again with Sketch and Figma. We heard it when design systems rolled in and people stopped redrawing buttons for the thousandth time. And now we’re hearing it with AI.
The worry is familiar: if the tool does too much, won’t designers stop thinking? Won’t the work get lazy? Here’s the reality: the quality bar for good design hasn’t moved.
Sloppy is sloppy, whether it’s co-opted from Dribbble, hacked together in a rush, or drafted with an AI prompt. What separates weak design from strong design isn’t how it was generated, but whether someone applied judgment, refinement, and accountability to bring it up to standard.
The bar has never been about the tool (or process)
Tools change what's easy, and processes enable velocity, but neither change what's required.
Design systems didn’t lower the bar for good design. They raised it. Once anyone could drop in a polished component, the expectation shifted: can you design a journey that makes sense? Can you solve for the messy, cross-product flow? Can you connect it back to product strategy?
AI sits in the same category. It takes friction out of the basics, like generating text, visuals, or options at speed. But that doesn’t make the fundamentals optional. If anything, it shines a harsher light on them.
Beyond design thinking checklists
Good design was never about running through a set of activities to prove you followed the “design thinking” playbook. Affinity mapping, journey mapping, prototyping - these are tools and processes, not guarantees of quality.
What makes a designer valuable is the ability to think critically:
Knowing which methods to apply and when to skip them.
Spotting gaps in logic or evidence.
Balancing user needs with product realities.
Making judgment calls when data is incomplete.
AI doesn’t replace that. It makes it even more necessary. With so much noise generated at speed, the signal comes from designers who can filter, evaluate, and apply what matters to the problem in front of them.
Why the gap widens with AI
When outputs are cheap, the difference between average and excellent gets more visible. An AI-assisted draft can look “done” at first glance. But if it’s generic, inaccessible, or disconnected from the product context, the lack of rigor shows fast.
That’s why the leaders who succeed with AI are the ones who:
Reinforce standards. Every AI output has to meet the same criteria as human-made work. Accessibility, clarity, usability are non-negotiable.
Shift focus. Free up time from mechanics so teams can dig deeper into the “why” and “so what.”
Measure outcomes. More drafts and faster iterations don’t matter if they don’t translate into better product impact.
The real question for leaders
So the question isn’t “will AI make designers lazy?” It’s “what do we want designers to spend their time on?”
If the rote work is cheap, leaders have to make sure the effort shifts to higher-order design: problem framing, systems thinking, product clarity. That’s leverage. It’s a designer’s superpower.
The fundamentals of good design haven’t changed. And they won’t change. AI doesn’t lower the bar. It just makes it impossible to hide when the bar isn’t being met. And it raises the premium on what separates good designers from average ones: judgment, critical thinking, and the ability to apply the right methods to the right problems.
How to evaluate impact
If you’re an exec or leader evaluating how design is using AI, don’t get distracted by the tools or the volume of output. Instead, ask three questions:
What are our metrics for success when integrating AI? Are we meeting those? Where are we missing?
Are standards clear? Do we know what “good design” looks like, and is AI work held to that bar?
Are designers applying judgment? Is critical thinking visible in how problems are framed and solved?
Are outcomes improving? Are we shipping clearer, more consistent, more impactful experiences, or are we just shipping faster?
The answers to those questions tell you more about your design maturity than whether AI is in the toolbox.
Looking for more?
Read how I think of design as a superpower in the age of AI, or check out all of my posts on AI.
