One day machines might take over the world, but in the meantime, we can all enjoy the wonders of AI advancement in our professional lives. Specifically as a designer, we're working in a time when AI apps can produce movie-like video footage that usually takes a crew of people to achieve or 3D animations that require a team of animators to all work in unison to create. But what does it mean for designers that are working on brands or apps and how can we harness this new wave of AI products?
Workflow Automation
For the last two years, I’ve integrated AI tools into my daily work and it’s been a game-changer. It’s made research much more efficient and allowed me to build an entire brand ecosystem around a color palette and logo that I created. More frequently, I use AI execute tasks that I would do in Photoshop to retouch or alter imagery. Now, I can click a single button to remove the background from the subject in an image and it’s done in 7 seconds. Two years ago that task would take anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes depending on the photo. Most recently, I’ve been using to create new versions of photography and illustrations that I've stylized for a brand, which has enabled me to create a full library of assets using just a handful of artifacts as the foundation. I've also been exploring animation and video creation, which is remarkable to say the least, because what would have taken weeks to storyboard and then weeks to animate is ready within 2-3 minutes. It truly is ground-breaking to see this level of firepower from AI software.
If you’ve ever designed a large-scale, complex workflow for a software platform or built a design system then you know the amount of labor that goes into the strategy, approach and execution of such a massive project. AI without a doubt will cut down the execution phase down exponentially over the coming years. You’ll be able to provide AI with a handful of UI elements or inspiration as well as an outline of the screens needed and it will build out all of the UI components, vector icons, copy and visuals in the program of your choice. In addition to that it will also provide the front-end code and make back-end integrations easier to manage.
The fact that I can free up my time to drive forward high value initiatives is a monumental shift for me. There will always be a big part of me that loves the craft, where every detail and pixel matter, but the need to do that from scratch will be less and less, except for those rare projects.
Secondary Research: Industry & Competitor Analysis
AI’s ability to gather and summarize a large swath of information from hundreds if not thousands of sources and then break it down into a clean summary allows me to conduct my own research for design purposes to better understand an industry and it's competitors. When you work within fast timelines, small startups or lean budgets, research is a luxury. With AI I’m able to quickly key in on insights that aid my thought process and understanding of a space. It won’t replace what an actual researcher can conduct, it’s a great second option for teams that need a boost of info or reassurance.
Future Designer Responsibilities & Task Impact
We can expect that most of our current design software will get updated to an AI chat setup that will replace how we execute design tasks. Designers will be able to type in prompts and let AI create and build a set of screens with the designer making modifications to 10-20% of that work by hand. No longer will we have designer every pixel, asset or artifact from scratch. Figma, Sketch and the Adobe Suite will have to advance to this level of workflow for heavylifiting tasks eventually. Right now they all have a limited AI feature set for tasks but that will eventually open it's self to large scale operations that will cut down execution time drastically.
Designers will have more time to work on the vision, strategy and collaboration across their company to better align and drive user value. No more juggling all of these responsibilities and then having to work into the evening on designs for a new app feature set. The day-to-day will require more communication and a heavier emphasis on user research, data and paving that road for more effective launches.