AI-assisted concept ideation, creative brainstorming, and visual exploration

"AI can create screens. So... do we still need designers?"🤔

This question has been on my mind for a while.

And honestly, I understand why many founders and companies are asking it.

Today, AI can generate wireframes, polished UI, landing pages, prototypes, design systems, and even production-ready code in minutes.🥲

So if a designer's only contribution is drawing screens in Figma...

...then yes, AI is already catching up.

But I think we've been asking the wrong question.

The real question isn't:
"Do we need designers?"

It's:
"Are we using designers for what they were actually hired to do?"👏

Over the last few years, I've realized something that changed how I look at my own career.

Many designers including me at one point spend most of their energy executing requirements instead of questioning them.💭

We become screen makers.

Instead of product thinkers.

The biggest value of a designer was never pushing pixels.

It's asking:

💭 Why is this feature needed?
💭 Is this solving the right user problem?
💭 What happens when users fail?
💭 Can this experience be simpler?
💭 How does this decision impact the business?

These are questions AI cannot answer on its own.

AI generates possibilities.🤞

Humans decide which possibility is worth building.🌻

Research consistently supports this idea.

• McKinsey's "The Business Value of Design" found that companies investing in design significantly outperform industry peers in revenue growth and shareholder returns.

• IBM has reported substantial ROI from investing in UX practices, emphasizing that understanding users early reduces costly redesigns later.

• Nielsen Norman Group continues to show that many usability problems originate from missing user understanding not from weak visual design.

Notice something?✋️

None of these studies say beautiful UI is the competitive advantage.

They point toward research, decision-making, validation, and strategic thinking.

Today, I use AI every single day as a product designer.

It helps me:

- explore more ideas
- challenge my assumptions
- identify edge cases
- improve UX copy
- critique flows
- prototype faster

But every important decision is still mine.

AI is my assistant.

Not my judgment.🌱

I believe the designers who will thrive in the next few years won't necessarily be the fastest people in Figma.

They'll be the ones who combine product thinking, business understanding, user empathy, and AI.

So maybe AI isn't replacing designers.

Maybe it's exposing the difference between designing screens and designing products.

I'm curious to hear different perspectives.

If AI can generate almost any interface today... where do you think the real value of a designer begins?👇

#uxdesign #productdesign #artificialintelligence #designthinking #uidesign #aidesign #productmanagement #uxresearch #careergrowth #figma #uiux #designercommunity #juniordesigners #learning #designers #aIindesign #aidesigntools #ai #ailearning #aidesigners #linkedin #creators

Artificial intelligence has completely changed the way I think about design.

Not long ago, creating wireframes, designing user flows, and building polished UI screens were some of the most valuable skills a designer could offer. Today, AI can generate interfaces, suggest layouts, write UX copy, create icons, and even build interactive prototypes within minutes.

When I first saw what AI was capable of, I had the same thought many designers did:

“Will UI/UX designers still be needed?”

The more I explored AI, the more I realized I was asking the wrong question.

I've been using AI in my design process daily for a while now. Genuinely useful. But something keeps bothering me.

It'll suggest a flow, a layout, an interaction pattern, confidently. And I sit back and look at it and think: if a real user actually got here, this is not how it would go.

AI doesn't know your users. It doesn't know where people actually get confused, what they skim past, what makes them quietly leave a flow halfway through. It's pattern-matching, not watching real behavior.

And founders moving fast with AI (which, fair, time is real) are sometimes shipping that gap straight to production without realizing it's there.

Half of what I do in a UX audit now is exactly this, going back through AI-assisted decisions and asking, would a real person actually experience this the way it's expecting them to? Often, no.

I run UX audits for exactly this reason, catching the gaps between what AI assumed and what your users will actually do, before it costs you drop-offs or support tickets.
_________________________________________________________________

I'm Wuraola Olaibi, a product designer based who builds products with AI in my workflow.

The truth nobody wants to hear: AI is still too expensive to replace most designers. I know every day there seems to be a new AI update, a new tool, or another headline telling us that AI is coming for our jobs. If you’re a designer, it’s easy to feel anxious when you see all of that. But from my experience using AI extensively in my workflow, we’re not there yet.

One thing many people don’t talk about is the cost.
For AI to truly replace a human designer, you need access to the best models, the right tools, premium subscriptions, APIs, tokens, automations, and infrastructure. When you start adding all of that up, it becomes expensive very quickly. In many cases, it’s still cheaper to pay a skilled human than to build and maintain a fully AI-driven workflow.

More importantly, AI still needs direction.
Every time I use AI for design work, the quality of the output depends heavily on my input. It depends on my thinking, my experience, my judgment, and my ability to guide it. AI doesn’t magically know what users need, what business goals matter, or what trade-offs should be made. I often describe AI as a junior designer. It’s fast. It’s helpful. It can generate ideas, speed up research, and help execute tasks. But it still needs supervision. It still needs someone to tell it what good looks like.

The real opportunity right now isn’t AI replacing designers.
The opportunity is for designers who know how to use AI, replacing designers who don’t. So instead of spending your energy worrying about being replaced, spend that energy learning how to work with these tools. Learn prompting. Learn automation. Learn how to integrate AI into your process.

Because today, AI works best when it’s paired with human judgment.
And that human judgment is still incredibly valuable.

This is what working with AI in design feels like…


Most designers approach AI like a shortcut.
That’s the wrong mental model.

AI is not here to reduce effort.
It’s here to expand thinking capacity.


When I integrate AI into my workflow, a few shifts happen:

• I stop thinking in single solutions and start thinking in systems of possibilities
• I move from “what should I design?” to “what are the 10 better ways this could exist?”
• I spend less time executing and more time questioning assumptions
• I validate ideas earlier, instead of polishing the wrong direction

AI becomes a pressure-testing layer for my decisions.


A practical lens on using AI effectively:

Instead of asking:
“Give me a UI for this”

Ask:
“What are 5 fundamentally different ways to solve this problem?”

Instead of:
“Write microcopy”

Ask:
“What would confuse a first-time user here?”

Instead of:
“Generate a wireframe”

Ask:
“What are the edge cases I’m missing?”


The advantage is not speed.

The advantage is better questions → better decisions → better outcomes.

Designers who treat AI as a generator will stay average.
Designers who treat AI as a thinking partner will move ahead quickly.


If you’re looking to bring this level of thinking into your team or workflow, I conduct practical workshops and training sessions on AI for design.

📩 Reach out to collaborate or schedule a session.

And if you want the prompt to generate this image, drop a like and comment “PROMPT”.

My design workflow looks different now.

Brainstorming → Claude
Breaking down UI references → Gemini
Wireframes → Lovable
Working prototypes → Antigravity

What used to take days now takes hours.

I'm not using AI to replace my design thinking. I'm using it to move faster so I can spend more time on the decisions that actually matter.

The designers who figure this out early are going to be very hard to compete with 🤔

What's in your AI stack right now?

A year ago, I was resistant to using AI. To be honest, I felt overwhelmed and stuck in my ways. But this year, I made a commitment to change that. Today is part 2 of sharing how I am leveraging AI to become more efficient and effective in my career & personal life.

What most people get wrong about AI is they focus on only speed. Doing things faster. Automating more, etc… But faster doesn't always mean better. And most of the time, it actually makes your work worse.

The real question isn't "how do I save time with AI?”

It's "how do I make my work better with AI while becoming more efficient?"

For me, one of my weaknesses is getting my ideas turned into visuals that I can share & present. I wasn’t the best ‘art’ student growing up to say the least…

So here are 3 ways Gamma has helped make my work better, not just faster with having F+ design skills:

1. Client-facing materials: I love to use AI for data analysis and more.. Now I can create on- brand visuals to make the story & data come to life. Quick one pagers, PDFs, exec summaries & more

2. Content creation: I also am a content creator, have a newsletter and my wife also runs her own business. Gamma has helped take my ideas to the next level.. And even designed new custom menus for my wife’s baking business.

3. Creative thinking: I am an outside the box thinker.. But when it comes to visualizing my ideas, I hit a wall. Gamma acts as my design partner to help bring my ideas to life.

How I'm NOT using it:
1. To do the thinking for me
2. To mass produce generic content
3. To replace the parts of my job that require a human touch

AI shouldn't just make you faster. It should make your outputs even better, leading to more value for your clients.

Gamma Imagine is basically an AI design partner. Describe the visual, it creates it. No design skills. No tool switching. No templates.

If you are exploring ways to use AI, I highly recommend giving Gamma a look.

Once you see what is possible, you won’t go back!

#GammaPartner

For a long time, I thought AI was something separate from my design work. Something advanced, technical or something “future me” would eventually learn. But the more I paid attention, the more I realized something surprising:

I was already using AI — almost every day.

Not in an obvious, “I’m designing AI systems” kind of way. But in small, subtle ways that had quietly become part of my workflow. And I think a lot of designers are in the same position.

My honest take? No. And here’s why ?

AI lacks empathy: It can build a button, but it doesn’t know the frustration of a user who can't find it.

AI follows patterns; Humans break them: AI mimics what exists. Innovation happens when we think outside the data.

Context matters: A machine doesn't understand culture, nuances, or the "vibe" of a brand. It just predicts pixels.

Strategy is human: Balancing business goals with user needs requires a level of critical thinking that a prompt can’t solve.

AI is an incredible tool I’m already using things like FigJam AI to speed up my brainstorming but it’s the human heart behind the screen that makes a product worth using.

AI won’t replace designers. But designers who master AI will definitely lead the way. 🚀
How are you using AI in your design process? Let's chat in the comments! 👇

There’s a lot of noise around AI in design. Some say it will replace designers. Others dismiss it entirely. After three months of deliberately integrating AI tools into my daily workflow, my view is more nuanced—and more interesting than either extreme.
AI did not make me less of a designer. But it permanently changed how I design.