Abstract: The speed at which artificial intelligence technology is integrated into products to ease user flows is redefining the role of designers, giving rise to specialized “AI designers” or “AI design specialists.” In this article, I explore the evolving responsibilities of designers in the AI landscape, emphasizing the critical need for deep collaboration with engineering, legal, and product teams. Drawing from direct experience, I highlight the challenges of translating complex AI capabilities into user-centric, valuable product features, especially within established organizations grappling with legacy systems and lengthy development cycles. Key takeaways underscore designers’ need to possess strong data literacy, continuously learn in a fast-paced field, and strategically advocate for AI applications that address genuine user needs. I outline the essential skills designers must cultivate, the opportunities presented by adaptive AI interfaces, the high stakes involved in responsible AI development, and the pressing questions the design community must address to shape a human-centered AI future.

Implications for research: This article focuses on the role and responsibilities of the emerging AI designer in modern product design and development. The distinction between AI for efficiency and AI for augmentation (Section 2.3) suggests a comprehensive framework that can help AI designers apply these categories and advocate for user and societal needs in the rush to incorporate AI functions into existing services. The discussion of user feedback loops (Section 2.6) characterizes good feedback systems as being granular, contextual, and actionable, with a palette of available UX patterns including inline corrections for refinement, transparent confidence scores, and feedback tagging. Empirical research is needed to provide AI designers with a generalized understanding of how these UI characteristics and UX patterns impact human understanding, and how they interact.