Execution: Designer vs AI
Please. Stop.
Let’s thrive together.
Let’s talk about why relying on AI is hurting you.
Hear me out.
Designers possess empathy, cultural context, experience and problem-solving skills with a human touch.
AI generates generic outputs from existing data, designers build intentional, client-focused solutions through research, iteration, and emotional intelligence.
Designers will listen, encourage, and cheer you on. Designers will make hard decisions for you based on facts, compassion and having your best interest at heart. Designers are artists.
If you hire an employee, choose a doctor, team up with a partner, choose a lover, find a friend, don’t you want them to care? What are the qualities you’re looking for? DO you want them to REALLY listen, to act with intention, to care with their heart and mind?
When you eat breakfast lunch and dinner, would you be bored consuming the same freezer meal for the rest of your life? The same beverage? Would mealtime become… almost meaningless? That’s how it feels when you rely on AI to design literally anything for you.
When I hop on social media, I am flooded - absolutely flooded with the same looking garage. Do you want to miss out on conversions because people question if you’re real or reliable? Trustworthy? Do you want to be seen by potential customers as lazy, or disingenuous?
Taking shortcuts isn’t saving you anything, and hiring a designer - a trained, creative problem solver - doesn’t have to be expensive or intimidating. If anything, taking a chance on a true designer is giving your company a chance. You’re giving someone else’s business a chance.
Stand out from the slop.
You’re starting to learn, I know you are, through trial and error every time you ping Chat. But, here is a basic rundown of reasons why designers EXCEL for you and why AI WILL FALL SHORT:
Empathy and Emotional Intelligence: Designers understand nuance. They can craft experiences that genuinely resonate with a specific audience, whereas AI merely identifies and mimics patterns.
Strategic Problem-Solving: Design is about problem-solving, not just making something look good. Human designers ask the right questions, identify underlying business or usability flaws, and align visuals and messaging with overarching brand goals.
Originality and Authorship: Professional work is built from scratch and informed by research, listening to you and is carefully iterated upon rather than blindly assembled from datasets of borrowed patterns, ensuring unique brand identity.
Technical Precision and Application: AI often struggles with coherent typography layouts, file management, and generating specific, production-ready assets (like layered vector files). You’ll get a crappy jpeg that misses the mark and is totally unusable for production.
Human designers know how to prep files for print, digital, or manufacturing. We can communicate with your printers and factories. We can review your comps and samples. You will not have workable files, you won’t have anything to edit or build on. Every time you need a change, AI will undoubtably change things without you asking while you're trying to fix things that are super wrong. With a HUMAN, you get brand consistency, product consistency, and more.
Ethics and Intent: Designers make conscious ethical choices regarding how a product impacts society and accessibility, whereas AI lacks the moral judgment to consider long-term real-world consequences. AI LACKS ETHICS.
Client Relationships and Collaboration: The best work often stems from a collaborative human relationship. Designers guide clients through the entire branding process, translating abstract visions into tangible visual systems.
AI is Absolutely Horrible for the Environment: WE NEED DRINKING WATER. We need to generate health and wealth. Don’t throw away tomorrow for convenience.
If you’re going to use AI, opt for a more environmentally responsible choice to serve as a highly effective brainstorming assistant to speed up early-stage exploration. Or/then, call a designer. We are here for you!
