AI is already an incredible product designer, but its value lies in being accessible to everyone as a tool rather than replacing human designers.
Ian Silber asserts that AI is already great at product design and is democratizing the field, though humans remain essential for understanding user needs, inventing genuinely new things, and maintaining a creative point of view. ✦ AI generated
Ian Silber · Lenny's Podcast · 2026-08-16 · original ↗
starts at this moment · 22:45
“Do you think AI will ever be an extremely good product designer?”
Maybe one way to put it is I think it already is an incredible product designer. It really is actually already great. The cool thing about it though is it's accessible to every single person. And it's a tool that anybody can use. I do think it's really good. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's like the best visual designer or best at information hierarchy or typography or even user experience and interaction design. It's not necessarily like the best at any of those. It's impossible to predict where things are going... But the way we think about it and I really do believe this is like we're building tools to enable people to be more creative, to do more, to build more. And so it is already a great designer, but you it's at your fingertips to kind of figure out how to use it and how to get the best out of it.
verbatim transcript · starts at 22:45
22:26AI will ever be an extremely good product designer and just to like it's interesting to ask you this question because on the one hand you're like oh yeah open like ChachiP is going to become incredible at everything. On the other hand, it's hard for a head of design to say, "Oh, no, design's going to be done by AI." I'm curious to get your your take and you know, it like
22:45sounds crazy, but like engineers never thought it would be able to write code the way it is now. Um, so just yeah, thoughts on just how good AI will get. >> Maybe one way to put it is I think it already is an incredible um product designer. [laughter] Um, it it really is actually already great. The cool thing about it though is it's accessible to every single person.
23:06Um, and it's a tool that anybody can use. I do think it's really good. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean that it's like the best visual designer or best at, you know, uh, information hierarchy or or typography or even, you know, user experience and interaction design. It's not necessarily like the best at any of those. It's impossible to predict where things are going. And like I said earlier, like you know, how much has
23:32changed in three years? Of course, they're going to continue to get better. Um, but the way we think about it and and I and I really do believe this is like we're building tools to enable people to be more creative, to be um to to do more, to build more. And so it's it is already a great designer, but you it's at your fingertips to kind of
23:52figure out how to use it and how to get the best out of it. Where do you think human brains will continue to be most valuable as AI gets better at product design specifically? What are kind of like the remaining areas for us to be useful? >> Truly understanding [snorts] what people need. um you know I mean the human uh feedback loop of watching people use something and and
24:19understanding that um the you know inventing something new um I think uh and then of course there's just the pure like human kind of take right like oh somebody made this somebody had a point of view about this um I just think that I do think that will stand out more and more and I think that that's like an important thing for a designer to like really hone is like what is my point of
- ·AI already functions as an incredible product designer
- ·Not necessarily best at typography or interaction design
- ·Cool factor: accessible to every single person
- ·Tool anyone can use to build and create
- ·Humans remain essential for understanding user needs
- ·Inventing genuinely new things requires human creativity
- ·Maintaining a creative point of view is human domain
- ·AI enables people to be more creative and build more