Design Orchestrator, Chapter 1 excerpt: Something has changed

By now, the feeling should be familiar. A sense that something is changing, as AI starts showing up in your day-to-day work and in conversations with your team and other designers. And once you start paying attention, patterns begin to emerge. Over the past couple of years, I’ve had the same conversation with dozens of designers, team leads, and peers across different organisations. Different companies, different sectors, but the same themes kept surfacing.

Most mid-career designers I speak to aren’t panicking about AI. Still, they’re noticing that something feels different. Roles are changing. Expectations are rising. And questions about security are starting to surface.

It’s not isolated to one team or one company. I’ve heard the same conversations in design Slack groups, LinkedIn posts, conference talks, and recruiter calls. There’s a quiet reshaping of teams. Subtle changes in how work gets done. New tools, new workflows, new expectations, often without clear direction.

It isn’t one dramatic moment. But it is happening quickly, with many small changes piling up. It sometimes feels a bit like standing on ground that’s constantly moving beneath your feet.

You’re probably noticing those same signs as well.

For example:

• A recruiter you’d usually rely on mentions there are fewer roles around.

• You notice design teams are getting leaner, at the same time as expectations about speed of output increase.

• AI tools start appearing in your workflows before there’s agreement on how, or even whether, they should be used.

Some people are experimenting carefully. Others are holding back, unsure what’s acceptable. And some are charging ahead, hoping it puts them ahead of the curve.

That can feel a bit like the Wild West.

I’ve spoken to designers across various sectors including finance, retail, media, and government. The specifics vary, but the underlying tension is remarkably consistent.

Something is changing, but nobody quite knows what it fully means yet.

Amongst all of this noise, there’s one perspective that keeps coming back to me. I’ve heard versions of it from dozens of designers:

• Use AI, and you risk looking lazy.

• Don’t use AI, and you risk falling behind.

Designers are caught in the middle of it all.

Use AI badly and it looks like shortcut thinking. Avoid it entirely and you look out of touch. Use it quietly and wonder if you’ll be called out. Use it openly and worry about where the line is.