It's a tool, not a replacement
Every generation of designers absorbs a new tool that the previous one swore would kill the craft: photography, desktop publishing, digital cameras, 3D rendering. AI is the latest. Like the others, it doesn't replace the work — it moves the work. The taste, the judgment, the decision of what deserves to exist and why: that part doesn't automate.
Where AI shows up in my process
I reach for AI the way I reach for any tool — when it's the right one. Exploring more directions before committing to one. Cleaning up the repetitive middle of a task so I can spend longer on the parts that need a human eye. Prototyping an idea fast enough to know whether it's worth doing properly. This very website is built in collaboration with AI tooling — directed, reviewed, and art-directed by me.
Where it doesn't
The concept. The brief. The conversation with a client about what they actually need. The final call on color, type, and composition. Anything presented as my work is work I stand behind line by line and pixel by pixel — AI-assisted never means unexamined.
What I owe the people I work with
Honesty about process. If generative tools played a meaningful role in a deliverable, I'll say so. I won't pass off raw generation as crafted work, and I won't use AI to imitate another artist's living style. The responsibility for quality — and for mistakes — stays with me, not the model.
Why I'm optimistic anyway
Tools that lower the cost of trying ideas make ambitious ideas cheaper to attempt. The designers who thrive with AI won't be the ones who prompt the hardest — they'll be the ones with the strongest point of view about what's worth making. I intend to be one of them.