""I can live with uncertainty, but I cannot stand ambiguity." That quote, by a business leader, captures a lot of why junior design roles have collapsed and why senior designers remain essential. I experienced this firsthand on a recent project analyzing how to integrate third-party solutions into our product. It wasn't traditional UX work: these 3rd party solutions had their own UI, which meant no wireframes or prototypes. But the clarity I brought, connecting different experiences into one consolidated workflow, was precisely why they needed a designer."
"Leaders now have a tool (in AI) that allows them to execute their vision instantly. Many people believe that if they articulate precisely what they want, AI will build it for them. But that's a big "if", and it's why the designer's job has fundamentally shifted from execution to clarification. The "Pixel Equation" Problem The design industry has long had an unspoken agreement: junior designers handle repetitive work (polishing mockups, working on small workflows, generating..."
Senior designers are becoming indispensable as AI enables leaders to execute visions directly, collapsing many junior roles focused on execution. Integrating third‑party solutions often lacks traditional UX artifacts, requiring a designer to reconcile disparate UIs into a single consolidated workflow. Clarity and cross‑experience connection are now the core design contributions. The promise that precise instructions will let AI produce finished products is uncertain, so designers have shifted from producing pixels to defining intent, constraints, and coherent flows. Routine tasks like polishing mockups and small workflows are increasingly automatable, leaving strategic, clarifying work for senior practitioners.
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