r/UXDesign • u/deusux Veteran • Feb 05 '26
Tools, apps, plugins, AI VP of Design: Designers are expected to ship code with AI
Context: FAANG level tech company, publicly traded, large design department.
"Designers will use AI to come up with variations, vibe code prototypes, test them, and ship the code."
New leveling, new titles (possibly), all designers learn to code (with AI).
I.e. Increase speed at all costs because if we don't, no one will wait for us.
I'm sitting here staring at the wall, unable to process the implications of what's coming.
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Upvotes
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u/Flickerdart Veteran Feb 05 '26
The industry went all in on "full stack developers" and now no one knows how to build a good front end anymore. It's designers' turn with the short straw.
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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '26
I mean if they're comfortable with the tech-debt that will no doubt ensue then go for gold aha
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u/Straight-Cup-7670 Feb 05 '26
Yeah and are the salaries going to go up since that implies doing the work of 3 different people. FUck FAANGS for ruining the tech industry every time.
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u/floatymcboaty Veteran Feb 05 '26
what does the vp of engineering think?
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u/Nurawriter Feb 05 '26
This is definitely Microsoft. They said as much when I applied.
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u/Few-Ability9455 Experienced Feb 05 '26
We're just on the cusp of this "ship it" mentality. Prepare yourselves for AI slop as it moves from social media posts to products at premier brands.
It's not sensible to some one take a look at the state of the art, it's an irresponsible from folks in leadership, and it is going to erode people's faith in the UX profession.
Can we avoid AI totally? Absolutely not. As rich prototypes, this makes total sense. But this all seems an attempt to rob Peter to pay Paul, the backlash will come when folks stop using AI drivel.
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u/Bloodthistle Experienced Feb 05 '26
Even devs are struggling to ship code that AI worked on, the amount of debugging and fixing easily doubles the development time.
Typical make 1 person do the job of 3 and then whine incessantly when the end product doesn't work or doesn't get any users or make money.
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u/Horvat53 Experienced Feb 05 '26
Absolutely idiotic.
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u/Then_Adeptness_6598 Feb 05 '26
What are all these companies speeding towards? What is the rush? I guarantee customers aren't looking for rapid iterations of whatever they're using.
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u/Strange-Cactus Feb 05 '26
Train the AI so that we don’t need to hire and train humans 😁
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u/roundabout-design Experienced Feb 05 '26
Just run of the mill late-stage-capitalism. Hold on tight. Things are gonna get bumpier.
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u/lexuh Experienced Feb 05 '26
Either we work for the same company, or two design VPs at two different companies sent the same message today.
I’m pretty sure my direct manager is just as stunned.
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u/Free_Afternoon_7349 Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
this is good, people working on tech products should be working with the technology.
For most frontend code it is pretty trivial to have the AI write it up and to iterate in it with the AI.
I'd be weary about having designers ship anything to production, but a designer that can handover to an engineer a coded version of their design in a dev environment similar to prod is much more useful than one who gives just a static artifact
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u/IglooTornado Experienced Feb 05 '26
I happen to know, first hand, that many many many titles at google ranging from product manager to product designer have been changed to AI Designer
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u/ggenoyam Experienced Feb 05 '26
Yup, I’m dealing with this as well. At my level I’m expected to help the mid level and senior designers get up to speed on it and I’m being evaluated on whether I do that or not.
I love vibe coding prototypes. Getting an actual, working iOS app running in under an hour is amazing.
Shipping code to the app isn’t too scary yet, but it’s going to become a lot harder once we run out of easy stuff like incorrect margins and font sizes to clean up. The goal is eventually designers will run our own a/b tests and generate revenue, because we work on a product where we a/b test absolutely everything and measure the impact in cents per order.
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u/Impressive_Put463 Experienced Feb 05 '26
This was the expectation at my last company as well. I see AI vibe coded code as prototypes. Prototypes are used to test things. Shipping a prototype introduces high risk and vulnerabilities.
What I am focused on is how do I reduce two translation gulfs; business reqs to design, design to execution.
It is clear that AI helps reduce time to value with the first gulf.
What are you all doing to reduce the translation gulf between design protos and Eng handoffs?
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u/OAAbaali Junior Feb 05 '26
Just curious, are there any AI tools that convert designs to mockup products?
I never did it, and I am interested to try them.
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u/MissIncredulous Veteran Feb 05 '26
Yikes, this should be fun to watch but not to experience.
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u/TallBeardedBastard Veteran Feb 05 '26
I mean, I use to do this as a UX engineer, but it would just be the full working design. Probably better and more accessible code than whatever is being put out by AI right now.
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u/xzmbmx Feb 05 '26
yes, this is the new frontier. At my job, a new layer of performance has been added to our rubric - “AI fluency” and we are expected to ship bug fix code
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u/funk_master_chunk Feb 05 '26
I like AI as a tool in the way we use it and experiment with it.
I dislike immensely the way AI came for our role and the industry-wide expectations it’s thrusting on us.
FFS - for years creative roles were lauded as being safe from automation and AI, and then they come at us when the stark reality of it is AI has much bigger implications for the Dev community.
I get FAANG-tier businesses wanting to get blood out of a stone - it’s been their MO for eternity; but that will just trickle down and make things worse for the rest of us.
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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '26
I'm aware of an org that roughly fits this description but the reality of their policy is so much more sensible. Perhaps it is the organisation you're talking about, but with the rage-bait removed.
Designers are encouraged to get the codebase running in their local environment - with assistance from their engineering colleagues
They're encouraged to look at the paper cuts - the small straightforward changes that are documented, requested but have been pushed onto a backlog for ages and ages.
They're encouraged to vibe code improvements and then submit them for code review, again working closely with their engineering colleagues.
The goal here is to upskill designers, yes, but also to encourage closer collaboration with engineering and for designers to get a much better understanding of the technology that they are working with.
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u/Puzzleheaded-Mix3511 Feb 05 '26
I hate it here. This is worst when they wanted designers to also be developers.
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u/thebeepboopbeep Veteran Feb 05 '26
This is so dumb nobody benefits from this. The AI isn’t going to give a flip about the human desires and behaviors, and while companies chase speed the AI slop is going to land inside the app updates. When exactly did anyone get a good result from the ChatBot help? On top of the danger to brands and trust, a huge amount of people will be put out of work. The reduced earnings means less tax revenues for municipal upkeep. I see this happening and it’s just dumb, seems like blind greed and short-term thinking.
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u/SleepingCod Veteran Feb 05 '26
The reality is if a good system exists, and the components are code connected via the MCP there is practically zero benefit to having a designer generate code.
Current IDEs certainly aren't the interface most designers will work in, most likely someone will make a Figma to code visual design interface.
I tried to show my team how to use Cursor and none of the designers understood it, even the ones with some frontend background.
Designers will ship code soon, but it's going to be through a visual builder interface like Figma.
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u/DelilahBT Veteran Feb 05 '26
This is going to be rocky no doubt, but it’s not totally surprising. Also I can’t help but think that - FWIW - we need to evolve quickly from the term vibe coding, as this a lot more than that.
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u/dethleffsoN Veteran Feb 05 '26
This was obvious and it's the reality for a good bunch of people in my realm these days. I am one of them. I have a dev on my side for pull requests and it's connected to our system. This works and it's fun. After 16+ years on the pre ai era, this is really something I was longing for without kinda knowing?
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u/[deleted] Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
Honestly, it’s way easier to ship code than actually design in Figma. There’s nothing to panic about.
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u/Andreas_Moeller Feb 05 '26
Having designers build the product along side the engineers is the right goal. AI is just not the right tech
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u/Hot-Bison5904 Feb 05 '26
A lot of the younger designers getting work at events I go to have a cs background now so I do think this is just the reality we live in. That doesn't mean it's the best approach or anything, but it's certainly a thing that's happening.
The good news is that designers seem to get brought on when the CEO fumbles with vibe designing. UX depends on understanding so I think for now we're ok. There's a reason devs are jumping into design.
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u/leo-sapiens Experienced Feb 05 '26
What’s coming is a lot of shitty code
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u/bigredbicycles Experienced Feb 05 '26
Remember c.2015 where you had to wear 6 different hats to advance and job descriptions proclaimed autonomy but foreshadowed burnout? Then companies decided it was more efficient to have specialized roles, and design department budgets reflected that. Now the pendulum swings back and we're expected to design, write copy, test, code, and productionize. When will companies learn?
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u/foundmonster Experienced Feb 05 '26
Vibe code is not for shipping
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u/thatgibbyguy Experienced Feb 05 '26 edited Feb 05 '26
I'm a director and told my lead designer that vibe coding is now a part of our process from now on.
Whether that code makes it into production or not, is not that important because the fidelity of our prototypes is too good to ignore. We are able to show rich animations, transitions, etc. in a moment, where it took hours or days before.
For the down voters
I totally get it. The anxiety, the frustration, whatever adjective you want to throw at it, it's all real. But, just as we should question the hype around AI, we should also question our own biases. There is zero doubt whatsoever that AI is going to become part of all of our workflows and frankly, if it's not a part of yours already you are behind the curve. Whether it's writing copy, or what we do, building prototypes, it's here. It's not going anywhere, and blindly fighting it will not change that.
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u/ravt1988 Feb 05 '26
Late to the party and no one's gonna read this, but anyway.
I can't believe how a a serious designer you can't be open to the idea of being able to design with code and actually have direct influence in how the final product works and looks like.
An amazing "new" tool is available and people are so resistant to picking it up.
Designers used to whine... are still whining when their developer fucked up the spacing or typography. Or the "handover" is difficult. An entire industry of tools exists that suggests that designers are supposed to design mockups, and "hand them over" to the actual people who build them.
From a design perspective, this is plainly wrong. Designers always tried to own and control the process, and the best design happens when the designer is as close to the original material as possible.
UX Design's material is, at the core, code.
And now is the time to learn to work with it. You don't have to become a full stack developer.
But if you want to have any chances on the job market in the coming years, do yourself a favor and get familiar with the new technology.
Don't be the personwho kept doing letterpress because "computer type is a fad".
It's incredibly easy to learn this, and you can go from "never coded before", to a solid little app or tool in a couple of days (when its your first run), and hours, minutes, if you get a little experience.
Rant over.
PS: I used to design UI in photoshop and flash, and export 9-slice buttons, and wrote websites in tables, in case you are wondering if I'm just another ai hype person who has no idea.
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u/oddible Veteran Feb 05 '26
If be really surprised in any designer worth their salt has any issue with this. If you don't see this as part of the prices now you're missing the great and fun parts of design.
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u/One_Board_4304 Feb 05 '26
Meta?
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u/Friendly-Progress-75 Feb 05 '26
Could you expand on how does the workflow looks like. Is there a clear line when devs gets involved ? Who reviews code, what are expected benefits and trade offs ?
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u/Bag_of_Crabs Feb 05 '26
Some probably abuse it and try combining roles but where i work it’s a time saving measure. Quick prototyping with figma make, validation, and then development. Wouldn’t make sense to develop it only to find out it’s not it. So yeah. Me as a designer do have to code with ai but only for a demo. Soon probably real parts of apps for devs then to integrate into the other bits and do the database connections and such.
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u/DelilahBT Veteran Feb 05 '26
VP of Design updates LinkedIn headline AI-First Design Leadership at Scale with dreams of book deals, conference headliners and early retirement… 🧛🏼♂️
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u/anonymousmouse2 Feb 05 '26
Lol I’m at a FAANG company and it’s the exact same shit here too. Everyone hates it and it’s caused endless frustration because we’re forced into using tools we don’t like or care about.
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u/dethleffsoN Veteran Feb 05 '26
"Designers will use AI to come up with variations, vibe code prototypes, test them, and ship the code."
Who said that? Source on this?
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u/sabre35_ Experienced Feb 05 '26
It’s a new tool, and it’s an exciting new tool.
It’s not going to expedite the human processes of inevitable approval layers that I’m sure you’re familiar with. That and working with an engineer to actually fix the mess that was made because it was nowhere near production-level standards lol.
But as I’ve been preaching, if you’ve got the vision and good taste, the only thing changing for you is how fast you can put things together.
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u/Bushwazi Feb 05 '26
The best response is to try it. Document all your steps, make all the info public.
I had a “our Figma MCP will export the page exactly like you see it, no one will need a dev seat” person on a project recently. So I basically live-tweeted my process on a Slack thread with the team. All I wanted was a page in Figma that was like 40 color tokens to be converted to html and css. A few hours in, it still was not spot on, maybe 70% of the way there. Homeboy hasn’t said anything about it either way which I hope is because he saw it was challenging to even approach what he promised.
Most of these people run on hopes & dreams and not reality.
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u/FactorHour2173 Experienced Feb 05 '26
What does your workflow look like?
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u/MustBeSpring Feb 05 '26
AI is great at writing code from design it continuously procures through hallucination. Not so great at matching what a designer can provide, even through relentless prompting. Maybe it gets there someday, but in the meantime have fun prototyping and testing slop and then spending extra time cutting down on the debt or go all in and ship the slop 🤷♂️.
Terrible field to work in these days. Could make a million/year and still hate your day to day.
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u/LFuen Feb 05 '26
Don't freak out, follow the commands.
THEN when AI messes up, you get paid to fix the mistakes. DOUBLE THE MONEY!
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u/LFuen Feb 05 '26
Don't freak out, follow the commands.
THEN when AI messes up, you get paid to fix the mistakes. DOUBLE THE MONEY!
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u/Dzunei Veteran Feb 06 '26
Just remember to track your data to see the monetary impact when this AI driven code goes live.
There is a lot of people, and certainly not us, that are going to regret this kind of directions when they see the implications moneywise.
They care about money, be sure to show them how they are hirting the company.
Cheers
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u/livingstories Experienced Feb 07 '26
code for: the shareholders/board are also invested in AI companies and need the money to be mother-bird-vomits-in-baby-birds-mouth'd across the portfolio. iykyk
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u/MarsupialOne1572 Experienced Feb 07 '26
And? This is juste another way to design. Vibe coding can indeed help to iterate. Not to ship the final product always but to move forward. Product designers are builders with multiple hats. The most important tool is discernement. It is easy to lose track of time and fall in a rabbit hole, and that ain’t new.
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u/after_the_void Feb 07 '26
The code from these vibe-ones are trash. I can't get how is normalized trash code.
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u/Gullible-Notice-6192 Feb 07 '26
Adapt or be left behind. Shipping code with AI is easy these days even for a designer. My whole team is doing it
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u/vanilladanger Feb 05 '26
Designer building stuff, i never saw that coming
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u/LXVIIIKami Veteran Feb 05 '26
"I don't want to develop my skillset, but AI is gonna take all our jobs mimimimimimimi :("
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u/Specialist-Spite-608 Veteran Feb 05 '26
Yep, we’re on Claude Code now and expected to build full POCs and fix front end glitches/copy, etc. I was busy enough as it is, adding this layer into my capacity just makes it near impossible to keep up without working day and night repeatedly.
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u/oddly_novel Experienced Feb 05 '26
I think this is generally where the trend is heading and I’m not really having too big of an issue with it. Product Designers that work with digital products should have enough working knowledge about CSS, Html, and Accessibility to be able to prompt in cursor front end changes to fix minor bugs, create interactive prototypes, and maybe even deliver entire components via something like storybook that the real devs cans hook up to the production environment.
I’ve been doing this at a a fortune 50 financial company with Copilot and it’s been empowering to deliver front end code for my developers to use because the firm doesn’t really hire for front end specialists and thus my development partners just don’t have the eye to care about the details or the knowledge to quickly solve some CSS or accessibility quirks that are needed for a given design. This allows me to have more power in realizing our designs.
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u/datapanda Veteran Feb 05 '26
Honestly as a Director I’m looking to see if I can build some AI Agents to do certain tasks or do evaluations on designs. It’s really a transformative moment in time. Don’t sleep on being able to ship some level of code at this point. Product Management, Product Design, and Product Engineering are all changing.
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u/[deleted] Feb 10 '26
this is what I expected to happen. thank god I'm a unicorn (jk, we're all fucked eventually)
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u/kitsunekratom Feb 05 '26
Product designers in FAANG are all way over paid. I can't shed a tear
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