Nik Gulak
Product Designer
In the past, product design followed a familiar rhythm. Designers gathered requirements, conducted user research, built wireframes, and collaborated with developers to turn concepts into products. The process was methodical, iterative, and often time-consuming.
For years, the industry debated what skills designers should master. Should they excel at drawing? Should they learn to code? These questions sparked countless discussions.
Today, a far more important question emerges: how exactly is AI reshaping the role of designers and the processes we once considered foundational? This is no longer about whether designers should use AI, but about understanding how AI changes what designers do, when they enter a project, and where their work creates the most value.
AI tools can already help us at the early stages of digital product development by creating concepts and drafts. It would seem that AI should replace designers at this phase, but in practice, it has encouraged them to engage even earlier. Designers are progressively taking on the role of coordinators: they guide AI's work, refine its results, and ensure that early concepts meet user needs and business realities.
Let’s explore how AI in product design has transformed design workflows, mindsets, and the skills product designers need to thrive in this new era.
AI isn’t just a new, trendy technology; it’s a different way of doing our jobs. What used to be manual, repetitive, routine processes are now fast and automated. Tasks that used to take hours – from crafting prototypes to preparing arguments for stakeholders – can now be completed dramatically faster. This shift is finally allowing designers to move beyond low-impact production work and focus their energy on the core of their profession: solving user problems.
Previously, a client would describe their idea and their business model, and then it would take a designer many hours to come up with an initial concept, necessary to confirm the client’s vision or verify the idea with users, without spending even more time on designing a high-fidelity user interface.
Now, tools like Framer AI or UIzard can generate a simple design draft for a website or app in a matter of minutes. Yes, the result will be far from perfect, but it already provides a foundation, thanks to which designers no longer face the problem of a blank canvas, and focus on refining the layouts and adapting them to meet both user needs and business goals.
Survey data and user interview recordings that used to take days to process can now be analyzed, categorized, and grouped by AI in minutes. This speeds up the research phase and shifts the role of the UX researcher from data processing to insight interpretation.
AI can write alt text for images, as well as generate and correct initial copy, so there is no longer a need to temporarily insert random lorem ipsum instead of real text. This way, the product can look more realistic even before copywriters and marketers start working on the final messaging.
The impact of AI on product design workflows isn’t theoretical – it’s already happening.
I recently faced a task where I needed to export 35 design assets in 4 different resolutions, resulting in 140 separate images, each requiring precise naming for development handoff. Manually exporting and naming these files would have been time-consuming and prone to human error. Instead, I asked ChatGPT to write a script. I exported the assets at the highest required resolution, and the script automatically generated the three other resolutions with accurate names, saving hours of repetitive work.
In another project, I received a folder containing 520 branded icons in multiple file formats (PNG, JPG, SVG) and three color versions. My goal was to extract only the editable SVG icons in a specific color theme. Manually sorting through hundreds of files would have taken significant time and carried the risk of mistakes. Again, I turned to ChatGPT, which wrote a script that filtered and removed non-SVG files and icons from the unwanted color themes, streamlining the process and enabling a flawless execution.
Tasks like these still arise for product designers, but today, AI allows us to delegate routine technical work to intelligent scripts without needing programming expertise. This frees designers to focus on higher-level decisions that impact user experience and business outcomes.
The impact of AI in product design goes beyond mere efficiency: it is changing the way we think about the role of designers and where they create value. Our contribution is no longer judged by how quickly we can create screens and concepts, but by how effectively we can frame problems, shape solutions, and design systems that meet user needs and business goals. As artificial intelligence takes over repetitive activities, designers are being pushed toward higher-level thinking, strategy, and responsibility for the bigger picture.
When much of the design process was done manually, the focus was naturally on individual screens and components. Now, with AI speeding up the process, designers are thinking more about the big picture: what features, flows, and data work together as a single system. This holistic understanding is becoming a defining skill.
Since AI can generate dozens of solutions, the problem is no longer choosing the best one, but correctly identifying the problem that needs to be solved. Designers now spend more time figuring out the true needs of users, aligning with business goals, and testing hypotheses before committing resources to implementation.
If a product uses artificial intelligence for any function, like recommending content, approving a loan, or identifying a security threat, designers need to make AI-driven outcomes understandable. It’s crucial to show what data was used, why a result appeared, and what its limitations are. Without this clarity, users are likely to lose trust.
AI can quickly provide answers and perform tasks, but the final decisions still rest with humans. Designers will increasingly work not on creating ideas from scratch, but on refining them: improving quality, removing unnecessary things, making compromises, and ensuring that the result is convenient for users and consistent with the brand, takes into account ethics, and helps achieve business goals.
The era of artificial intelligence has made strategic thinking and seeing the big picture of a product much more important. Designers who consciously embrace this shift are moving from being makers of finished products to being strategic partners who influence the underlying trajectory of a product.
As artificial intelligence changes the nature of the Product Design job, the most valuable skills are also changing. Technical execution of tasks is no longer the top priority. Instead, designers are valued for their ability to think critically, guide decisions, and ensure AI-enabled products are meaningful and effective.
AI can generate an infinite number of design options, but without a clear direction, speed is irrelevant. Designers can diagnose the real problem of a product and ensure that the generated output has a clear purpose and provides measurable value.
Designers need to understand how LLM models think, what impacts their results, and where they can screw up. Prompts are not just a few keywords like in Google search – they’re detailed instructions that shape how AI responds. This is communication with a system that interprets instructions in its own way. Those who can clearly set a task, set restrictions, and build a good prompt will be able to use AI as a full-fledged creative partner, and not just a tool.
AI can automate processes, but it cannot decide whether decisions are in line with company goals. Designers who understand market positioning and companies’ inner workings can connect user needs with business goals, making them indispensable.
AI brings new concepts, but also the risk that the client and stakeholders may not understand them without a technical background. Designers who can clearly and simply explain and justify their decisions, as well as the role of artificial intelligence and its limitations, help achieve alignment and trust between the team and the client.
In the age of artificial intelligence, the most valuable designers will not be those who can efficiently use Figma and build prototypes, but the ones who can think strategically, guide technology to achieve specific results, and fulfill real user needs.
AI has not replaced and will not replace Product Designers, but it has changed their workflow. We no longer spend time on monotonous tasks and the detailed drawing of screens for MVPs. Instead, we create systems, connect the right tools, and make decisions that move the product towards something truly meaningful.
Artificial intelligence can already speed up our workflows and even design a draft of the finished product without the designer touching Figma. This means that our role is changing.
So the real question isn’t whether designers should learn AI – that part is obvious. The real question is how designers will redefine their role in an environment where AI can already generate ideas, speed up execution, and shape early product concepts. Those who embrace this shift and invest in strategic thinking, ethical judgment, and skilled prompting won’t just stay relevant – they’ll shape what product design becomes in an AI-driven world.
P. Nawrocki - Product Designer
M. Cieślukowski - Senior UX Researcher
Ł. Okoński - Head of Product Design
E. Waszkowski - VP of Commercial Development
