Last Tuesday, I dropped in on a UX design course by Czechitas. The junior designers there had a lot of great questions, and one kept coming up repeatedly: “Will AI take my job before I even get one?”
If you're a junior UX designer, you're probably asking yourself the same thing. Seniors have portfolios, networks, and years of refined processes. You only have a few school projects. It seems like a disadvantage. At the same time, it's your biggest advantage.
Simon Wardley described 16 types of inertia, that hold people and companies back when technology changes around them. And you're not burdened by them.
The Inertia You Don't Have
A senior's methods work for them. Why would they change them? Every past success is a reason to leave things as they are.
Where a senior is rewriting ten years of established practices, you're starting from scratch. You can dive into UX with AI and do design completely differently than current seniors. Continuous AI research instead of one-off projects. Systems for generating and validating ideas instead of workshops. You'll ditch Figma before you even open it for the first time.
Customers are still people
UX design isn't going anywhere. Companies serve people, and people spend money with them. As long as that's true, user and customer experience will always be at the center of attention. What changes is what we focus on.
It probably won't be table layouts, wireframes, or Figma.
At the same time, it's possible that UX as a field will gradually merge with product management and execution.
What's next
Do UX with AI. Among other things, this will give you mid-level competence in any part of our field. Can't work with a Service Design Blueprint? AI can. Averagely, but still.
Start doing projects for non-profits. Build the entire customer journey with a set of agents — from initial research to a website or app. You'll learn more in a weekend than in a semester.
About overcoming inertia — both my own and the team's — I wrote a book. Pre-orders will start in June. Of course, you can come to AI Design Lab. At the same time, it's more for mid-level/senior professionals who want to incorporate AI into their work. Unlike you, they are truly struggling with inertia.
"Decisions are a record of the power structures and the feedback loops that got it there."
– Andrew Harmel-Law
Weekend Reading
A nice framework for proactivity (agency).
