So much emphasis on product designers producing code Right when code is becoming

By Danwiner · October 27, 2026 · Curated by George's Blog

So much emphasis on product designers producing code

Right when code is becoming the lowest-value commodity

Anyone can produce sloppy code

Only engineers can tell you that it's sloppy

The more time you spend doing that, the less you lean on your expertise

Especially as you'll end up leaning on baked in design skills more and more

The hardest part of design was never about producing assets

It has always been understanding what to design.

And understanding what to design has always been about understanding what your customers want and how to align that with business goals.

All of that can be accelerated via AI, and AI-generated code can also be a great medium for more realistic user tests to build conviction.

So none of this is against product designers using AI.

But moving further downstream in the production line might be a precarious place to be.

The real opportunity for product designers to stay relevant isn't AI-generated code, it's using AI to:

◦ Analyse customer feedback at scale

◦ Identify friction and broken journeys

◦ Explore edge cases

◦ Understand technical constraints earlier

◦ Audit experiences for inconsistencies

◦ Simulate personas and workflows

◦ Surface patterns in support conversations and research

◦ Find gaps between intended UX and actual behaviour

Use AI to become more of an expert in your own field rather than becoming a novice in someone else's.