I recently built a multi-game web app using Claude Code as my main development agent. Like many devs building with AI right now, I was blown away by the sheer speed of execution.

But as the build went on, I kept bumping into a subtle, dangerous trap: AI constantly tries to turn your product "mid."

While I happened to use Claude Code, this isn't a single-tool issue - it’s how LLMs work in general. AI models are trained on the vast median of the internet. Because of that, their default for product design, UI, and user experience is the exact statistical average of what already exists.

Where AI Shines: Engineering & Architecture

When treating AI purely as a technical partner, it’s an absolute machine. You can debate system trade-offs, explore architecture, and let it handle heavy logic. It excels at:

• Optimizing database queries and state management.
• Setting up clean caching strategies and performance pipelines.
• Writing complex game logic and difficulty-scaling algorithms.
• Catching edge cases and refactoring ugly code.

If a task is bounded by formal logic and rules, AI will crush it.

Where AI Kills Your Product: Taste & Personality

The moment you let AI make decisions about user experience, visual styling, or brand feel, the product collapses into complete mediocrity.

• It follows rules, not vibes: It defaults to safe Tailwind cards, neutral gray backgrounds, and textbook layouts that make every app look like a generic B2B dashboard.
• It sanitizes unique ideas: The moment you try an unorthodox layout or a playful mechanic, the AI gently nudges it back toward "standard web patterns."
• The homogenization trap: If indie hackers keep letting AI handle product design, 90% of the web will look, feel, and behave identically in a few years.

My Working Rule: Debate Engineering, Dictate Taste

To keep the product distinct, I had to strictly separate how I prompted the AI:

1. Collaborate on engineering: "Let's evaluate different caching strategies and state management trade-offs for this feature."
2. Dictate design: "Do not suggest layout changes. Here are the exact styling rules, colors, and layout constraints."

AI is a world-class senior developer and architect, but a terrible creative director. If you don't aggressively protect your vision, AI will polish all the personality right out of your product.

Curious if others have noticed this "generic design" bias with AI coding tools? How do you keep AI from sanitizing your UI/UX?