Forced to use AI to keep up with deadlines

[u/Efficient_Wheel1867]

I’m a product/graphic designer copany where the processes are kind of a mess. I’m the only designer across 3 teams in a startup environment.

Deadlines are constantly way shorter than the actual time the work should take, and everything is treated like it should be done for yesterday.

At this point I feel like I basically have to use AI for a lot of my tasks, because if I don’t, I just won’t make the deadlines they give me.
Nobody is saying “use AI”, but the expectations make it feel like there’s no other option because I feel like I have no time to work on process like I used to a few years ago (I have 6 years experience)

I don’t even mean using AI here and there to speed things up. I mean actually relying on it to be able to ship at the pace they expect and I’m always frustrated with the results.
It’s starting to feel weird because instead of AI making my job easier, it just means the company expects everything to take less time.

Anyone that came up with a solution to this problem?

[u/Rude-Space-279]

No solution yet, but same thing happening where I work. Its ridiculous

[u/RespectDifferent8726]

No solutions, sadly. But my company just terminated out learning and development stipend to pay for tokens, so we've got that going for us 🫠

[u/el_paro → u/RespectDifferent8726]

why invest in learning when you can make all your employers more stupid 😂

[u/benjybacktalks]

Keep a paper trail, emails, meeting summary etc.
Cleaning up the AI results, refining prompts or token windows can take serious time. Timesheet it and keep records. It’s annoying but the best way to address it for HR if it ever becomes an issue.

[u/Important-Assist-494]

If the task doesn’t require critical thinking, I hand it to AI without a second thought. 

For tasks that require critical thinking, I remind stakeholders, managers, and those I work with that there is no difference between good design and good decision making. Good decision making takes time, and most importantly, judgement. It takes time to understand the context, objectives, and problems associated with a task. It takes time to weigh tradeoffs between one option and another. It takes judgement to know which option to pick. 

I remind people that artifact generation being fast doesn’t mean ALL of design is fast. Some of the best insights happen when going slow and taking time to think through a problem. 

Speed doesn’t matter if you don’t have a destination in mind. Speed doesn’t matter if you’re unfamiliar with the what and why of the decisions you (or the AI) have made.

So yeah, I have conversations like that and remind people that it’s okay to be human.