Designers have been falling behind in adoption rate when it comes to AI tooling (or at least so I hear). Engineers are speeding ahead. But, why is this the case?
Outputs are increasing, so much so that months of work are compressing into days, if not hours thanks to AI.
Most of the tools that have been coming out recently feel more developer friendly. A great example of this are that AI skills, which are specialized information crafted as tools, are in beta across most of the top platforms. Within Claude code, it’s native, Codex, it’s native, but it’s actually a bit more tricky to get them into other chat applications like ChatGPT and Claude itself.
This is another reason that we are building Glare- to give tools that designers and product can leverage in a way that isn’t only engineering-friendly.
My hunch is that yes, engineers are leading the way- they’re scrappy, willing to try new things (most of the time), and since most of our work is text-based, it’s extremely easy to leverage LLM tools in a way that makes sense. But soon, designers and product alike are following right behind.
Are other people also seeing this trend? Do we think that engineers will be infinitely ahead? Or will it start to peter out, leveling the field entirely?
This stuck out… Tom Greever has a great book on Design Decisions.
Interestingly, many also expect to hire more designers because their engineers are moving so fast now that design is a bottleneck. They know they need more designers, but want to see more AI adoption before making that investment.
This seems about right. Also feels like a train wreck.
I really like this question @ben and the quote from Tom Greever @Bryan .
My take is that it won’t be either developers og designers, but people with ideas.
Code or design is not a thing you can sell if it’s not turned into something people value (the idea). And now people with ideas have gotten super powers to turn ideas into products and services.
My bet is that we are moving from an age of singular solutions = one size fits all (e.g. we all have to use the same Trello) at a huge cost to organizations who have to design themselves around the solutions providers have chosen to make. But as iphone is individual to every user every piece of software that matters inside a company will be equally individual to the processes within them. (this is my long bet).
I love extending this thinking into B2B environments. Our goal of Glare is to empower people to design and build using the same workflows that larger players use, at a fraction of the effort and cost. AI is going to crush the middle of this market
Using AI Skills is a start to enable this end-user power. The question is, how do we harness the information in a business?
Also, love this idea of mutations from the article
Mine hidden assets: Use underutilized assets outside your organizational structure, including assets from individuals.
This is what open source is about: finding ways to promote people in the community and evangelize the broader idea while letting go of all the control.
These core “mutations” are very much true:
Inversion: Start with the individual’s needs, not the organization’s goals
Rescue: Free valuable assets from old systems and make them accessible
Bypass: Skip legacy structures that add friction, cost, or control
Reconfiguration: Let users shape experiences around their own preferences
Support: Build tools, platforms, and relationships that help people live how they choose
