Why AI won't replace designers—but might still cost you your job

In this article, we'll tackle two closely related questions:

• Will AI replace UI/UX designers?
• Will UI/UX designers lose their jobs?

Let's dive in.

Will AI replace designers? — No.

Ironically, the rise of AI means we'll need UI/UX designers more than ever.

By 2025, most CEOs of AI-focused companies predict that 90% of code will be AI-generated. @Theo recently highlighted why this won't eliminate developer roles—instead, it'll multiply the number of projects and amount of code produced tenfold.

What does this mean for designers? Simply put, faster and cheaper development. Small teams are now launching companies with huge valuations and unprecedented speed. Consider these recent successes:

• Cursor: From zero to $100M ARR in 21 months with just 20 people.
• Elevenlabs: Achieved $100M in revenue within 2 years, using a team of only 50.
• Lovable: Reached $4M within just two weeks with merely 2 people.

In such a rapid environment, lengthy and costly UX research—often more expensive than product development itself—will become impractical.

Will AI Take Jobs? — Yes.

Here's the challenging truth: UI/UX design as we currently know it is changing. The job won't disappear entirely, but the skills employers value will shift dramatically.

Imagine a hiring decision: who's more valuable in this new landscape—a junior designer with a year's experience using an AI-driven framework that accelerates design by 10x, or a senior designer with 10 years of expertise exclusively in Figma?

For perspective, ask designers who spent years mastering Photoshop only to switch to Figma—how valuable was their previous experience?

So, What Should Designers Do?

The good news? If you're reading this in 2025, it's still early days.

You might already sense changes underway—mass layoffs, reduced salaries—but perhaps your employer hasn't announced cuts yet. This means you have a crucial window to adapt.

Action Steps:

• Research: Embrace rapid testing methods over traditional, lengthy UX processes. I'll explore this topic further in an upcoming article, so stay subscribed.
• Design: Learn basic coding skills. This doesn't mean becoming a developer or diving deep into complex stacks. It simply means learning enough to design faster and communicate effectively with development teams.

If you're curious why designers who code will thrive over Figma-only designers, check out my previous article: Why designers who code will always outperform Figma-only designers

Want to understand why the old "Designers shouldn't code" argument no longer holds? Read more here: Should designers code? Why Alan Cooper might be wrong in 2025.