Building for the future with yesterday’s tools

Artificial intelligence is moving faster than most of us can keep up with, and designers are caught in the crossfire. On one side, there’s immense pressure from companies to integrate AI into everything, often with little regard for whether it actually improves the user experience. On the other, we’re navigating a technology that is unpredictable, opaque, and resistant to the structured processes we’ve spent years perfecting.

This isn’t just about learning new tools—it’s about fundamentally rethinking how we design. AI doesn’t behave like traditional software, and the workflows that have served us well for the last decade suddenly feel inadequate. How do we design for something we can’t fully control? How do we balance AI’s promise with its reality? And most importantly, how do we ensure that human needs don’t get lost in the race for innovation?

The AI race and the design process

For many designers who started their careers in the mobile era—roughly since the late 2000s—their experience has been rooted in designing within mature, well-defined technological paradigms. Mobile design, web design, and even software interfaces have all followed stable, structured rules. AI, however, disrupts this predictability and forces a rethinking of established design methodologies.

Unlike past technological shifts, where the design process could build upon well-defined interactions and patterns, AI is dynamic, fluid, and often unpredictable. It doesn’t behave consistently or follow deterministic rules, making it difficult to apply conventional user experience strategies. This shift challenges the skills and experience that designers have honed over years of working with mature technologies.