In recent years, we’ve witnessed an explosion of innovative tools and services driven by cutting-edge generative AI technologies like ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion. These advancements span industries — transforming everything from video editing and transcription to job applications and customer service interactions. As a designer, I’m particularly drawn to how these tools impact creative production. While there are concerns about how they may shift the way we work and the value we bring as designers, I see exciting opportunities to navigate these changes and harness them for business growth.
As a UX designer, creating value in a business context is at the heart of what I do. The rise of these new tools is an opportunity, not a threat — and I believe in embracing them to enhance the user experience. Today, I’d like to explore how AI-powered tools might shape the future from a UX designer’s perspective.
How do you use AI tools like ChatGPT? For me, ChatGPT has become indispensable for tasks like conducting research and drafting proposals in English. How do you integrate AI into your work?
The Impact on Originality and Creativity
Long before AI came on the scene, tools like Canva and Miro had already democratized design, making it accessible to people with little to no experience. While this has empowered more people to create, it’s also led to a noticeable decline in originality, particularly among younger generations. They may use templates without understanding the reasoning behind certain design choices—whether it’s why a PowerPoint layout is structured a certain way or why specific font sizes are chosen for business cards.
Generative AI, however, is set to disrupt creativity on a much larger scale. AI has the power to affect human originality faster than tools like Canva and Miro ever could. And while this might sound concerning, I view it as an opportunity. With new processes come new possibilities—AI can be a fantastic tool for idea generation. Still, we must be aware that relying too much on AI could potentially erode our critical thinking skills.
Originality and creativity are deeply rooted in human cognition. As AI takes over more cognitive tasks, we risk losing some of that human-driven creativity. While AI can offer immense convenience, it also challenges us to maintain our ability to think creatively and originally.
The Decline of Foundational Skills
As AI increasingly takes over creative processes, it enables people to perform specialized tasks without a solid foundation in the underlying knowledge. This trend is already visible in fields like video editing and graphic design, where basic understanding of analog technologies is rapidly fading. For example, in printing and video production, there are significant technical differences between digital and print media, such as resolution, color codes, or between devices like smartphones and televisions, where frame rates differ. However, younger designers using preset templates in tools like Canva often lack awareness of these nuances—leading to issues like pixelated business cards when printed.
This shift isn’t entirely new. We’ve seen similar patterns when letterpress printing was overtaken by digital printing, where older skills began to disappear. But what’s different now is the speed and scale at which generative AI is accelerating this decline. As more areas of creative work are automated, foundational knowledge is being lost at an unprecedented rate. Naturally, this decline in basic knowledge translates to a decline in practical skills. It’s not hard to imagine a future where tools will automatically convert AI-generated designs into print-ready formats, further distancing designers from understanding the technicalities behind their work.
Printing techniques, like letterpress and digital printing, provide designers with unique and creative ways to express ideas. Mastering these techniques has long been an essential skill in design. However, with rapid technological advancements, these traditional skills are becoming increasingly difficult to learn and practice, as modern tools streamline processes that once required deeper technical knowledge and hands-on experience.
Back to Basic
If the prevailing mindset shifts to “I can just use AI to look things up,” we may witness a significant transformation in how people approach learning. The focus could move away from mastering foundational knowledge toward learning how to control and manage AI systems. Instead of honing creative skills, individuals may prioritize training AI to achieve desired outcomes. While this might work smoothly when everything goes as planned, it can become a serious issue when problems arise. Without a strong foundation of knowledge, it becomes difficult to identify the root cause of issues, and relying on AI to solve problems can erode our ability to think critically. This could lead to a dangerous overdependence on AI, where people are forced to rely on it for nearly every aspect of problem-solving.
This situation is not unlike how cars have shaped modern life. In rural areas, cars are essential for even short trips that could easily be walked, leading to problems like lack of exercise and an over-reliance on car-based thinking. Once we grow accustomed to such conveniences, the thought of giving them up becomes unthinkable. I believe that the continued integration of generative AI into our lives will quietly embed a similar dependency into our subconscious. The more we rely on AI, the harder it becomes to imagine functioning without it.
Although I’ve summarized my thoughts here, the full impact of AI—unlike anything humanity has seen before—will only become clear with time. It’s highly likely that AI will follow a trajectory similar to that of social media. Despite understanding its potential negative effects, the convenience and enjoyment AI offers will overshadow those concerns. As a result, stopping or even reducing its use will be nearly impossible. In the face of these profound changes, it’s critical that we revisit and reinforce our foundational skills now, more thoroughly than ever before.
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