When execution gets easy, taste gets harder

A student, Thomas, asked me recently how I see AI changing design over the next few years. I gave him an answer I didn’t expect to give: the lines are blurring, and that’s actually good news.

For as long as I’ve been designing (nearly three decades now), there’s been a clear handover point. Designer makes mockups. Developer builds them. Maybe some back-and-forth happens. But the roles stayed pretty distinct.

That’s changing fast.

The handover is getting fuzzy

I used Cursor to build my website. I understand CSS conceptually, but I couldn’t write it from scratch. I just kept prompting and tweaking until it worked.

Meanwhile, the engineers I work with now make design-related tweaks directly. They’re not asking for permission to adjust padding or swap a color. They’re just doing it.

This isn’t a takeover. It’s a shift. And honestly? It mirrors what happened when designers started using tools like Figma that made it easier to think in components and systems. The tools changed, so the work changed.

But here’s what I’m watching for: I don’t think we’re done yet. Right now, the tools still have a clear starting point. You either start visual (Figma, Lovable) or you start with code (Cursor, v0). What I’m curious about is when something blends both—real structured code with a visual canvas you can just edit.

Framer might be heading there. I haven’t tried designing directly in it yet, but it’s on my list. Because I think that’s where this goes. Not designers coding. Not developers designing. Just people making things, using whatever tool fits the moment.

So what do designers bring to the table?

If execution gets easier, if anyone can spin up a decent interface, what’s left for designers?

Taste.

And before you roll your eyes, I don’t mean “good taste” in the subjective, art-school sense. I mean taste as judgment. The ability to know what will resonate. What works visually, but also strategically. What fits the business, the users, the moment.

Think about Rick Rubin. Famous music producer. Can’t play an instrument. Can’t work a mixer board. Has no technical music ability. But his taste, and his confidence in that taste, has produced more hit records than almost anyone. Across completely different genres. Metallica. Jay-Z. Johnny Cash.

That’s not about execution. It’s about knowing what works and why.

And that’s where design is heading. Away from “make it look good” and toward “make it work and know why it works.”

The bubble is expanding

Here’s how I explained it to the student: imagine the role of a designer used to be a small bubble. If you were a decent designer, you could fill that bubble pretty well.

Now that bubble is expanding. It includes more strategy. More understanding of context. More judgment about what to build and why, not just how to build it.

The designers who thrive will be the ones who expand to fill that space. The ones who get stuck will be the ones who keep working within the old, smaller boundaries.

And here’s the interesting part: as that space grows, the gaps become more obvious. Previously, if you could execute decently, you were fine. Now, as the role expands, it’s much clearer when a designer isn’t filling the available space.

What taste actually means

Taste isn’t about knowing what looks good. It’s about knowing what will work and why.

It’s judgment. Pattern recognition. Understanding what resonates with people, even when you can’t articulate exactly why.

In design, taste means:

Knowing which problems are worth solving
Seeing which solutions will actually work in the real world
Understanding what will resonate with users and the business
Having conviction about direction when everything feels uncertain

This isn’t new. But when execution was hard, designers could hide behind the craft. “I’m good at Figma” was enough. Now it’s not.

The two camps (and why both are wrong)

I’ve noticed designers split into two camps lately:

People who refuse to use AI at all
People who want to use AI for everything

Neither is the path forward.

AI is a great tool. But it’s not always the best tool. Sometimes you need to sketch. Sometimes you need to talk to users. Sometimes you need to just sit and think.

The goal isn’t to use AI more. It’s to use it when it actually helps.

What this means for you

If you’re a designer wondering what to focus on as tools get easier:

Stop optimizing for execution speed. Anyone can move fast now. The question is whether you’re moving in the right direction.

Develop conviction. Not arrogance. Conviction. The confidence to say “this will work” or “this won’t” based on something deeper than personal preference.

Learn to fill the expanding space. Strategy isn’t someone else’s job anymore. Neither is understanding users deeply. Neither is thinking about business context. These are designer problems now.

Stay skeptical of both camps. The people who refuse to touch AI and the people who want AI to do everything are both wrong. Use the tool when it helps. Ignore it when it doesn’t.

Practice making judgment calls. Not just visual ones. Which feature matters most? Which user problem is actually worth solving? What will move the business? These are taste questions.

The hard part about execution getting easier is that it exposes everything else. You can’t hide behind craft anymore. But if you’re willing to expand into the space that opens up, to develop taste, judgment, and conviction, this is actually the most interesting time to be a designer.

The role isn’t shrinking. It’s just becoming more obvious who’s actually filling it.