Designing with Gen AI
Last week, I stirred up a conversation on LinkedIn by predicting that Figma will evolve into a tool primarily for defining styles, while generative AI tools like Loveable and Replit will become the faster, more efficient way to mock up designs. If there’s one thing that gets Designers talking, it’s predictions about design tools!
Honestly, I wouldn’t have believed this myself a few months ago—but as they say, seeing is believing.
My Experience with Loveable
Recently, I started using Loveable to work on one of my own product concepts. I had a page layout in mind, so I described it in a simple text prompt. In seconds, Loveable generated the front-end code and rendered the interface.
The eerie part? The design looked strikingly similar to a Figma mockup I had created months ago. Intrigued, I kept going. After about fifteen prompts, I had multiple pages of my app built and interacting with each other.
It felt incredible.
Was the interface perfect? No. Did I have to tweak and refine elements? Of course. But in just thirty minutes, I had a functional starting point for a web app—without spending a single second nudging pixels in Figma.
This was a "once you see it, you can't unsee it" moment for me. These tools will take time to mature, but I don’t think there's any turning back.
Will Gen AI Make Designers Obsolete?
Absolutely not. Many designers worry that AI will replace us, but I see it differently. AI won’t eliminate design jobs—it will fundamentally change how we work, just like every major technological shift before it.
I’m going to date myself here, but I remember designing before CSS. The first products I worked on were built in Flash and HTML, and much of my job involved exporting images for UI elements like rounded-corner buttons, which seems absolutely insane now. If you know you know.
Just like CSS, Figma, and other breakthroughs in tech, AI will reshape design—but it won’t replace the need for thoughtful, strategic designers. Instead of focusing on tedious tasks, we’ll now be able to spend more time defining the right problems to solve and crafting better experiences.
The future isn’t about AI versus designers—it’s about how we evolve alongside these tools.
Where to get started
If you’re feeling anxious about AI’s role in design, take a deep breath, stay curious, and have fun exploring. You don’t need to be an expert (no one is yet) or even have a fully formed opinion—but you do need to be aware of AI’s capabilities and how it can enhance your work as a designer.
A great way to start is by experimenting with some of the tools shaping this shift:
I’m always up for discussions about Design and Tech so reach out to me on LinkedIn if you want to continue the conversation.
