Why AI-era developers still need designers

If you're a designer who's been worried about developers, empowered by AI, taking your job, read this and put your fears to rest.

A fundamental truth about team roles

Each person can assume multiple roles, and the distribution of these roles varies significantly from one team to another.

One team might consist of ten specialized individuals—an analyst, a designer, a product manager, a frontend developer, a backend developer, and more. Conversely, another team might have just one person handling everything.

Two distinct phases in feature delivery

Having personally managed every stage of delivering features, I can confidently state:

Feature delivery typically consists of two distinct phases, which always follow a strict sequence:

1. What should we build?
2. How should we build it?

The process of solving these tasks can be simplified as:

• List possible options
• Choose the best one

The distinction lies in the type of decision being made:

• In the first phase, decisions focus on appearance and functionality.
• In the second phase, decisions focus on the most effective implementation.

Why designers and developers remain distinct

The primary reason designers and developers will continue to be separate roles is that answering these fundamental questions requires entirely different skill sets:

• Designers excel at rapidly generating multiple viable options.
• Developers excel at executing the chosen option with precision and technical quality.

Accordingly, the tools each role uses must align with these differing needs.

An analogy from industrial design

Designers use flexible clay to quickly shape ideas, whereas engineers use metal to turn these concepts into reality.

Even when designers use code for clickable prototypes, their use differs dramatically from developers. Designers typically don't require TypeScript, databases, or responsive image optimizations. They seek the simplest syntax possible to visually represent ideas quickly.

For developers, however, handling real data, ensuring security, and system reliability are essential, significantly increasing complexity.

Comparing team structures: a practical example

Consider two hypothetical teams over multiple development cycles:

Team A: Two dual-skilled members (Design + Development)

• Handles two tasks simultaneously but requires two cycles per task: determining "What" then "How" to build.

Team B: One dedicated designer and one dedicated developer

• The designer continuously moves forward with new tasks while the developer implements previous tasks, enabling parallel workflows.

The more cycles included in the analysis, the less noticeable Team A's advantage becomes.

The cost of dual competencies

You might argue Team A is more versatile, but here's the critical question: Will individuals with dual competencies accept pay equivalent to a single-specialty role? Definitely not.

Considering salary expectations, Team A quickly becomes significantly more expensive despite only slight efficiency gains.

Even factoring communication overhead, teams with dedicated roles consistently prove more cost-effective by approximately 30–40%.

If you disagree, consider how challenging it can be to switch between tasks within the same profession. Then imagine the difficulty of shifting between the mindsets required for design and development.

Final thoughts: your job is safe

In practice, dual-skilled teams might be suitable in specialized situations—but these are exceptions. They won't reshape the overall job market. Designers, rest assured: your role isn't going anywhere.

However, AI will certainly transform your workflow significantly—so stay informed and adaptable.

Feel free to reach out by email to share your thoughts! If you still don't understand why coding hasn't become the primary tool for UI designers yet, check out the next article.