The easier it is to create something, the more important human discernment becomes.
But when it’s hard, when technical expertise is necessary to achieve an outcome, that serves as a sort of forcing function. Getting to an outcome requires a significant investment of time and energy to develop the acumen to both understand a problem and determine that a solution will actually work.
As one example, desktop publishing gave the tools of print design to a mass of people who were untrained, uneducated, and frankly uninterested in the principles of “good design.”
Similar stories unfolded with the advent of digital audio workstations (replacing complex audio engineering studios), desktop video production (replacing high-tech editing suites), and 3D printing (replacing molding and manufacturing technologies previously only found in factories).
We’re in the same place with AI and software, as Teresa Torres points out on the latest episode of Finding Our Way, the design leadership podcast I host with Peter Merholz.
“There’s always been tools that allow us to build mediocre things, and there’s always been companies that choose to build great things,” Teresa says. “I think AI is gonna make a lot of mediocre things. But I think design is gonna come right back in importance because we’re gonna try to not be mediocre.”
In my AI strategy consulting work, it’s become clear that the challenge for teams is rising above the mediocrity—which necessarily means leveling up our own human discernment to make better choices.
I agree with Teresa that AI technologies have the potential to activate and enable more people to create more software than ever before. Making sure that software is a better fit for people and their needs than ever before is what design is ultimately all about.
Check out the whole podcast and transcript on the Finding Our Way website. Thanks to Teresa and (as always) Peter for a great conversation!
Jesse James Garrett 