AI helps us become efficient designers but what's the catch?

AI has quietly become part of my design toolkit. Like many designers, I use it to speed up research, organise ideas, write drafts, and sometimes break through a creative block when the blank page feels a little too intimidating.

It makes parts of the process smoother. Faster. And that efficiency is hard to ignore. But recently I’ve started to question what that speed might be replacing.

Design has never really been about arriving at the answer quickly. The most interesting ideas tend to appear when you slow down. When you sit with a problem, question it, explore it from different angles, pull it apart and piece it back together again.

That messy middle is where creativity tends to live.

AI often skips over that part. It offers something immediately: a structure, a direction, an answer. Sometimes that’s exactly what you need to get started. I’ve used it that way myself as a spark when I’m stuck or staring at a blank screen.

But over time I noticed something subtle. The easier it became to generate answers, the less time I spent wandering through ideas. Instead of exploring different possibilities, I found myself refining what AI suggested. The friction that normally forces deeper thinking. The friction that often leads to unexpected ideas, started to disappear. And that made me pause.

Design isn’t just about solving problems. It’s about discovering them. Some of the most valuable moments in a project happen when things are still unclear: sketching rough ideas, asking what if, or simply stepping away from the screen. That slower thinking builds a deeper understanding of the problem, and of the people you’re designing for.

AI can assist with the process, but it can’t replicate that instinct. It can organise information, surface patterns, and accelerate repetitive tasks. Used thoughtfully, it’s a powerful tool. But it shouldn’t replace the thinking behind the work. Because the real value of a designer has never been speed. It’s about our curiosity, our taste and perspective based on knowledge and experience. AI works from patterns that already exist. Designers imagine what could exist next.

So the challenge isn’t whether we should use AI — it’s how we use it. Whether it remains a tool in the studio, or quietly becomes the voice shaping our thinking.