AI won't replace designers because it lacks taste and subjective opinion. Instead, as AI gets better at generating highly opinionated (though not perfect) designs, it will serve as a powerful exploration tool. This plants more flags in the option space, allowing human designers to react, curate, and push the most promising directions further, amplifying their strategic role.

Chesky observes that the vast majority of AI startups focus on enterprise applications, leaving a significant opportunity in consumer-facing products. He argues that the largest companies will be those that impact daily life and advises entrepreneurs not to shy away from the harder, "hits-driven" consumer market.

True design isn't about aesthetics; it is the fundamental soul of a creation, revealed by how it works. It requires distilling a product or company to its simplest form through profound understanding. As AI automates coding, this ability to design systems becomes a critical skill for everyone, not just designers.

ADP List CEO Felix Lee observes that the majority of designers haven't grasped the disruptive potential of AI because their workflow remains centered on Figma. They are not yet exploring more powerful, code-centric AI tools like Claude Code or Cursor, leading to a dangerous sense of complacency.

Figma's CEO believes AI will create the "10X designer." As AI automates basic design tasks, making "good enough" the new baseline, the premium on true craft and system-level thinking will skyrocket. Designers who can leverage AI to execute a holistic product vision will become indispensable leaders and key drivers of a company's success.

Brian Chesky compares the current state of AI interfaces to the MS-DOS era—a functional but primitive way to interact with powerful new technology. He believes the chatbot is not the final form and a "multi-touch" moment is needed, where devices and apps are completely re-imagined for an AI-native consumer world.

Instead of fearing AI, design engineers should leverage it to automate boilerplate and foundational code. This frees up mental energy and time to focus on what truly matters: crafting the nuanced, high-quality interactions and animations that differentiate a product and require human creativity.

Brian Chesky, a designer by training, warns that creative professionals sitting out AI risk becoming irrelevant. He draws a parallel to the early web, where traditional designers' hesitation led to the rise of product managers. He urges designers to embrace AI and coding to lead, not follow.

For designers feeling threatened by AI, the advice is to look to engineering peers as a model. Engineers have already adapted to massive AI-driven workflow changes with humility, successfully integrating new tools to become more productive, which provides a roadmap for designers.