I feel so stupid for not using AI

If you have seen the latest ChatGPT Astra ad, you must have seen the moment when the lady says:

"Make it good. Make it better."

And I'm sorry, but that's not design language. That's the same old client language we've been hearing for years.

Then she says: "Make the background color complement the rain jacket."

Now that is design language.

But the interesting part is, they basically forced her to speak that way. And indirectly, ChatGPT is telling you something: you need to understand the terminology of the field you're working in.

Because there's a huge difference between knowing that something doesn't look right and knowing why it doesn't look right.

And I think this is where the whole AI conversation gets interesting. The way these ads are made, it almost feels like you need nobody anymore. But the truth is, most of the time you need somebody from that specific field if you want better results.

That's why learning design theory, or having core knowledge of your field, is non-negotiable.

AI can give you the tools, but it cannot automatically give you the knowledge to use those tools properly.

What happened when I tried building an app

Look at app development. There are so many brilliant AI models right now that can build an app just like that. You describe what you want and AI builds it. It writes the code, creates the interface, connects things together. And for a moment, it feels like: "Oh wow! I don't need a developer anymore."

But the problem is, many of these things start and then they end. They go nowhere. Unless you have a developer with you, or you're a developer who actually understands code. One simple mistake, one small piece of knowledge you're missing, one error you don't understand, and suddenly your dream app can go into the dirt in a blink.

And I know this because I actually tried it myself.

I'm a graphic designer. I tried building an app with Lovable. In the beginning, it felt so smooth that I genuinely thought: "Okay, anything is possible now."

But after a few weeks, I realized that's not how it actually works. I was desperately looking for solutions, trying to figure out what was wrong. And I didn't even know what the error was called.

I needed a developer. Someone who could actually understand what the hell that error even is.

That's when I realized: if a developer is there, they can do much more with these tools than a client from a completely different field ever could. Because the developer already understands the foundation. AI is just giving them a much more powerful tool, and that's what these AI models are good at.

I think the people who can get the most out of these models are the people who already understand the field they're working in. They can work faster. They can explore more ideas. They can automate the boring parts. They can produce things in less time, and potentially get much better results.

But you need to know what you're doing first.

The invisible trap

The ads are targeted at everyone. That's how they sell subscriptions. They show everyone: "Look what you can do now." So you buy the subscription. But the people who are going to get the most out of it are usually the people who already have some core knowledge of what they're doing.

And I think this is also what's happening with a lot of our clients right now. They're trapped in an invisible trap. They're being baited into thinking:

• "I don't need anyone anymore."
• "I can do this myself."
• "I can make my own designs."
• "I can build my own website."
• "I can make my own videos."
• "I can automate this. I can automate that."

And they're thinking: "Why should I spend a huge marketing or design budget when I can just pay $20 a month for AI?"

Honestly, we can't blame them for trying. If you're a business person and someone tells you something that used to cost $20,000 can potentially be done with a $20–$100 monthly subscription, of course you're going to try it. Anyone would.

But I think, slowly, our clients are starting to come out of that trap. They're starting to understand what's going on.

Their primary job was never to create designs. It was never to automate everything themselves. Their main job was always to grow the business. Build better products. Build a better team. Build a brand.

AI can absolutely help them do those things. But AI doesn't suddenly make them an expert in all of those things.

Being realistic about AI

Don't get me wrong. AI is extremely useful. I use it every day for web surfing, finding things, cross-checking, researching, and brainstorming. There are so many small things where AI has genuinely made my life easier.

But despite being so powerful, these models still give wrong answers. Sometimes they get very basic tasks wrong. It doesn't matter how expensive or powerful the model is; it can still confidently give you the wrong answer.

That's exactly why domain knowledge matters. If you don't know the subject, you might not even realize the answer is wrong.

Precision is everything

Now, let's go back to that ChatGPT ad. There's the guy who made a rocket out of nowhere and then turned it into a game. Obviously, that's not really the point. It's there to show the possibilities. Basically: "Look what can be done now."

And yes, a lot can be done now. But here's the problem. You don't just create anything. You create what you actually want to create.

As a designer, I don't just draw something anywhere. I don't put my Pen Tool somewhere randomly and say, "Let's see what happens." I put that Pen Tool exactly where I need that line to be.

In our field, precision is everything. Every decision has a reason.

Trying to tell AI exactly where to draw is going to be a nightmare. You need to know what you want. And sometimes you don't even have the vocabulary to explain what you want until you've spent years doing the work.

These models are capable of doing some seriously crazy stuff. But it depends on who's using them.

The never-ending loop

Do you remember when OpenAI first launched its models and Midjourney started creating images of almost anything? Graphic designers were on the front lines. We were supposedly in danger. Everyone was talking about how AI was going to replace graphic designers.

And honestly, to this day, I don't see the big impact people predicted.

Most people disagree with me here, and I get it, but hear me out.

What I've seen is that getting new projects can be delayed. Clients experiment with new AI tools. They try doing things themselves. And then, even when they realize, "Okay, we're ready to come back and hire our designer again," another wave of AI models arrives, and some clients start thinking, "Wait, what can this new model do?"

So they pause again. Experiment again. Play with it again.

You see what's happening? It's like a never-ending loop. The tool changed. The need for the person who understands the problem didn't disappear.

And I think we're going to keep seeing these waves. AI is going to keep getting better. Every time something new comes out, people are going to panic again. But that doesn't mean the entire profession disappears every time.

Logos, originality, and AI

Now let's talk about something designers are particularly worried about: logos.

AI still sucks at designing good logos. And even if, in the future, it becomes capable of making a technically beautiful logo, I still have questions about how original that logo really is.

This is where the whole question of AI and originality gets interesting. AI can absolutely generate something that wasn't literally sitting somewhere in its training data. But it's still heavily dependent on patterns learned from existing data. And a huge amount of the visual material available online was created by humans: designers, photographers, artists, illustrators, and everyone else creating visual culture on the internet.

So AI can create a new combination. It can create something that has never existed exactly like that before. But the underlying visual language didn't come from nowhere.

That's where I think the risk of plagiarism, unintentional imitation, and questions around originality become extremely important. When you ask AI to make something that looks like a particular designer, a particular style, or a particular visual language, you're entering completely different territory. And that's something we as designers need to pay attention to.

Creating something that looks new and creating something that is genuinely original and intentional aren't necessarily the same thing.

Our value was never the software

This is why I think designers need to stop thinking only about software. Our value was never Photoshop. It was never Illustrator or Figma. Those are just tools.

Our value is understanding. Understanding what to make. Why to make it. What to remove and what to keep. What the brand should feel like. What the audience should understand.

That's design.

"We can use AI for this"

There's another concern I hear from a lot of designers. Clients are saying, "We can use AI for this. We can use AI for that."

And honestly, believe me: they were never your client.

Before AI, they were the same people using Canva templates. They were downloading things. They were trying to create things themselves. They were always looking for a way to cut that cost.

AI didn't create those clients. AI just gave them a new toy to play with.

That's important to understand. If someone genuinely values what you do, a new tool isn't automatically going to erase that relationship. They might experiment with it. Of course they will. But eventually, they're going to compare the result with what they actually need.

This is why I think, as designers, we need to talk about these things loudly. We need to create awareness. Not fear. Not panic. Not "AI is evil." Hating AI won't solve anything. We need to learn it and stay up to date.

Who AI might really disrupt

Here's another thing. For years, we thought AI was coming for us. It was going to replace humans. It was going to replace designers. But the more I watch these tools develop, the more I wonder if AI is actually going to kill somebody else's business first.

• If AI can create images however you want, maybe that's a bigger problem for Photoshop.
• If AI can create vectors, maybe that's a bigger problem for Illustrator or Affinity.
• If AI can build websites and applications, maybe it's a bigger problem for Figma.

We were always the service providers. Our clients were the business owners. The only thing that's changing is the way we work. That's it.

If you're entering design right now

If somebody is trying to come into the design industry right now, I would say: make sure you never, ever leave the foundation.

The foundation of design is design theory and everything around it. Learn typography, composition, hierarchy, and color theory. Learn visual communication. Learn why things work, and why things don't. Because if you don't understand those things, a more powerful tool isn't necessarily going to help you.

Here's a fun fact: at top design schools, software is not the priority, and it never was. They teach you what makes you a designer. How to think. How to solve problems. How to communicate. How to develop your own visual language. That's been the foundation of design education for a very long time.

Once you have that core knowledge, learn the tools that give you freedom of creation. Learn whatever software helps you bring your ideas to life.

And yes, learn AI. Don't skip it. It's not ready yet, but it will be.

• Learn how to talk to AI efficiently. Prompt engineering is a thing.
• Learn how to give AI proper direction.
• Learn how to evaluate what it gives you.
• Learn where it fails and where it's brilliant.
• Learn how to combine it with your existing skills.

Because the person who understands design and knows how to use AI is going to be in a completely different position from someone who only chats with AI bots.

Adapt, don't panic

I think that's ultimately where we are. AI isn't going away. There might be another wave of new models coming, and then another one. We can either spend our time panicking about every new model, or we can understand what's happening and adapt.

Create awareness. Don't panic. Adapt. Showcase great design results. Keep learning.

Don't try to stop something that is inevitable, and don't wait for governments to act on it. If governments were really going to protect us from technological change, they would've probably limited a lot of this way before. So it's all on us.

AI is here. It's getting better. And if you're a designer, that's probably the most important thing you can take away from all of this.

Don't abandon the foundation. Don't abandon your craft. Don't hate the new tools. Learn them.

The tool is getting more powerful. Now make sure you are powerful enough to use it.

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