Product design is fundamentally changing as AI shifts the focus from Figma mockups to code-based orchestration and machine-readable systems, elevating the designer’s role in visible, user-facing quality that automation can’t fully replicate

Design leads spend about 80% of their time on communication, alignment, and justification. Not on hands-on design work. Every design decision carries a “justification tax”: the time spent explaining, documenting, and defending choices that other disciplines make in a quick conversation.

AI should be targeting that 80%, not the mockup work. Use it to synthesise meeting notes, draft stakeholder communications, generate research summaries, and build quick prototypes that settle debates with data instead of opinions.

Product Design Is Changing

rogerwong.me

Product Design Is Changing

rogerwong.me