A year ago, if you had told me that I’d be spending less time designing in Figma and more time collaborating with AI, I probably wouldn’t have believed you.
As designers, we spend years developing our craft. We learn how to solve problems, think through user journeys, create wireframes, refine interactions, and obsess over details that most people never notice. Design isn’t just something we do; it’s part of how we think.
So when AI started making its way into the design world, I felt something that I suspect many designers felt: discomfort.
Not because I thought AI-generated designs were particularly impressive. Rather, I wasn’t sure what it meant for my role. If a machine could generate screens, suggest layouts, and create prototypes in seconds, where did that leave the designer?
At the time, I didn’t have an answer. Today, I think I do.
And surprisingly, the answer has less to do with AI and more to do with what design has always been about.
The Process I Trusted
For most of my career, my design process followed a familiar pattern. A problem would land on my desk, I’d begin exploring ideas through sketches and wireframes, and I’d gradually refine the strongest direction into a polished solution that engineering could build.
The process was intentional. Every screen existed because I created it. Every interaction had been considered. Every design decision was the result of exploration, iteration, and judgment.
That process taught me how to think as a designer, and for a long time I believed that the effort involved in creating those artifacts was inseparable from the value they provided.
Looking back, I realize I was partially right and partially wrong.
Then AI Entered the Workflow
At Mindworks, we’ve been actively embracing AI across the company, so it was only natural that we would begin exploring how it could fit into our design process as well.
Initially, I approached AI-powered design tools with curiosity and a healthy amount of skepticism. They were useful for brainstorming and generating ideas, but I didn’t see them as part of my everyday workflow.
Then the tools improved.
What started as experimentation gradually became a practical way to explore ideas. Instead of spending hours creating multiple low-fidelity concepts, I could evaluate dozens of approaches in a fraction of the time. I could challenge assumptions, test workflows, and prototype interactions before even opening a traditional design tool.
The most surprising part wasn’t the speed.
It was how quickly I found myself focusing less on creating artifacts and more on solving problems.
The Shift I Didn’t Expect
At first, using AI felt a little like cheating.
There was a part of me that believed good design had to be earned through manual effort. If I wasn’t personally creating every wireframe and every screen, was I still doing the work?
Over time, I realized that belief was tied to the tools rather than the outcome.
AI wasn’t replacing the thinking; it was removing friction.
The hard part of design was never drawing boxes or arranging layouts. The hard part was understanding people, workflows, business goals, and the tradeoffs that come with every product decision. The hard part was deciding which solution deserves to exist.
That responsibility never disappeared.
If anything, it became more important.
Because when ideas become cheap, judgment becomes valuable.
As AI makes it easier to generate concepts and prototypes, the designer’s role shifts away from creating every option manually and toward evaluating, refining, and directing the right solution.
The craft hasn’t disappeared.
It has evolved.
Spending Less Time in Figma
One of the most unexpected changes over the past year is that I’m spending less time in Figma than I ever thought possible.
For years, Figma wasn’t just a tool; it was the center of the design process. Ideas started there, evolved there, and eventually became the source of truth for engineering.
Today, that isn’t always the case.
Increasingly, I find myself exploring ideas in AI-powered environments before opening a design file. I can describe a workflow, generate multiple approaches, iterate on concepts, and create interactive prototypes much faster than before.
What’s particularly interesting is that these tools are becoming increasingly aware of our design systems, patterns, and product conventions. The outputs aren’t perfect, but they’re often good enough to accelerate the early stages of design dramatically.
This has led me to a question I find myself thinking about more and more.
Are We Designing Beyond Design Tools?
Will there be a future where traditional design tools are no longer the primary deliverable?
Could we eventually move from idea to AI-generated prototype and then directly to engineering without recreating the experience in a separate design application?
A year ago, I would have dismissed that idea.
Today, I’m not so sure.
The purpose of design tools has always been to help teams communicate intent. If AI-generated prototypes become accurate enough, consistent enough, and deeply connected to our design systems, then the prototype itself may become the specification.
Instead of handing over a collection of static screens, designers could hand over working experiences.
Instead of documenting every interaction manually, those interactions could already exist within the prototype.
Instead of translating design intent across multiple tools, teams could collaborate around a single interactive artifact.
I don’t believe traditional design tools are disappearing anytime soon. Design systems, governance, collaboration, accessibility reviews, documentation, and product thinking still matter tremendously.
But I do believe we’re witnessing the beginning of a meaningful shift.
The question is no longer whether AI will become part of the design process.
The question is whether the design process itself is about to be redefined.
Conclusion
When I first started using AI in my design process, I worried it might diminish the value of what I do.
Instead, it forced me to rethink what design actually is.
The real work was never creating wireframes, mockups, or design files. It was understanding people, solving problems, and making thoughtful decisions about what deserves to be built.
That is why I believe the most important question is not whether AI will replace designers. It is whether the tools and artifacts we have relied on for decades will continue to define the design process.
I don’t know the answer yet.
But if AI continues to evolve alongside our design systems and product knowledge, the future of design may not be about creating better deliverables.
It may be about reaching a point where the deliverable is the experience itself.
