I think it’s even simpler: the complacent designer has never been a valuable asset. The best designers are the ones who want to grow and learn. Long before the AI paradigm, designers who didn’t want to grow were getting PIP’d every month. Hiding in the dark corner of their company’s matrix, maybe making one rectangle a day… they were encouraged to grow their product sensibilities, to proactively solve business problems—and now the tools are just benefiting the people who are actively doing that. High agency has always been the most valuable archetype, and we are just seeing a higher delta between those who can and those who don’t want to.
There are two Designs. One of them is dead, the other is more alive than ever.
1. Design as the production of visual assets is over soon. This is unfortunately 90% of design jobs in industry. We won’t even need agencies to create design systems like Gokul thinks - they will get solved in the same breath as the rest of it
2. Design as a general method of problem solving is more exciting than ever thanks to AI dissolving the barrier to entry for most tools. The solution space for most designs have expanded dramatically for those with eyes to see
It’s never been more exciting to be a designer, if you can let go of what design used to mean