AI tools accelerate development. Instead of using this new speed to add more features (increasing scope), designers should leverage it to deepen the craft and quality of the core, essential features, creating an experience users have never seen before.

As AI makes it easy to generate 'good enough' software, a functional product is no longer a moat. The new advantage is creating an experience so delightful that users prefer it over a custom-built alternative. This makes design the primary driver of value, setting premium software apart from the infinitely generated.

AI tools are commoditizing the act of writing code (software development). The durable skill and key differentiator is now software engineering: architecting systems, creating great user experiences, and applying taste. Building something people want to use is the new challenge.

While AI tools can accelerate prototyping and coding, relying on them completely leads to 'cognitive surrender.' This creates brittle, unmaintainable products built on a 'crusty foundation.' True craft requires human judgment, architecture, and taste to guide the machine.

As AI accelerates software development, basic functionality becomes table stakes. Figma's CEO contends that differentiation and winning now depend entirely on design, craft, and a strong point of view, as 'good enough' products will no longer succeed.

AI tools are dramatically lowering the cost of implementation and "rote building." The value shifts, making the most expensive and critical part of product creation the design phase: deeply understanding the user pain point, exercising good judgment, and having product taste.

AI tools dramatically speed up code implementation, making engineering velocity less of a constraint. The new challenge becomes the slower, more considered process of deciding *what* to build, placing a premium on strategic design thinking and choosing when to be deliberate.

With code becoming cheaper and faster to write thanks to AI, the critical differentiator is no longer the ability to build, but the judgment and taste to decide what is worth building among countless user requests and possibilities.

As AI lowers the barrier to creating functional software, "good enough" products become mediocre. To stand out, companies must differentiate through superior design, craft, brand, and storytelling, moving the competitive battleground "up the stack" to more subjective, human-centric values.