Summary
AI's impact on DesignOps tools: forget the if part--we've squarely moved on to when and how. The real question is this: are you ready for how AI will change your work as a DesignOps professional? Join us for a panel discussion with the companies that are envisioning or already utilizing artificial intelligence to dramatically change the practice of Design Operations.
Key Insights
-
•
AI is best framed as a powerful junior assistant rather than an autonomous intelligence in design operations.
-
•
Limina uses AI primarily for operational support like onboarding, marketing, and synthesizing contract details, avoiding client data input.
-
•
Environmental impact is a key consideration in adopting AI, as AI technologies have significant carbon footprints relevant to organizations pursuing sustainability certifications like B Corp.
-
•
Balsamiq focuses on low-fidelity wireframing and is cautious about rushing AI integration due to ethical and market pressures.
-
•
Ethical concerns about AI include potential job displacement, intellectual property issues, and legal risks raised by hallucinated AI outputs.
-
•
AI can enhance onboarding by offering personalized, self-service chat interfaces that provide only relevant context and documentation as needed.
-
•
Current AI tools aid UX research by automating transcription and summarization but cannot yet reliably generate deep user insights without expert oversight.
-
•
AI is poised to act as a conversational interface or connective tissue linking design systems across disciplines such as design, engineering, and product management.
-
•
Successful AI integration requires human experts to train and guide AI with precise prompts and taxonomies to avoid bias and irrelevant output.
-
•
Organizations may develop proprietary AI models specialized to their internal knowledge bases and workflows, requiring roles like AI engineers dedicated to that purpose.
Notable Quotes
"People tend to forget that the A in AI stands for artificial, which is basically fake intelligence."
"Think of AI more like a junior associate, a really powerful one, not a replacement."
"We haven’t put any client data into generative AI — just information about our own organization and processes."
"AI itself has a very large carbon footprint, so we have to balance adoption with our environmental goals."
"We’re experimenting but not yet planning AI product releases; the space is so open and exciting."
"There’s a difference between generating prompts and actually generating useful design outputs that fit your unique vision."
"We see AI as a tool that can quickly sketch ideas and ask thoughtful questions to take designs to the next level."
"The relationship with AI is like having a gopher or minion — don’t give it the final decision."
"AI can serve as a conversational broker, helping non-designers interact naturally with design systems."
"AI is a great automated assist, but it is not yet an insight generator like we hope for in UX research."
Or choose a question:
More Videos
"Some war games, like modeling a thermonuclear war, are no-win scenarios, which is why we spend so much time trying to prevent that."
Terry BuckmanWargaming (An Introduction)
August 10, 2023
"If you can’t see a human in a video, how do you know the entire conversation wasn’t fabricated?"
Llewyn Paine[Demo] Deploying AI doppelgangers to de-identify user research recordings
June 5, 2024
"Tracking hours of collaboration wasn’t intended, but became a powerful secondary KPI showing cost savings."
Melissa TsangFrom Insights to Action: Driving Business Values through DesignOps
January 8, 2024
"Nearly a third of the 65 mental health commission recommendations call for co-design, which is pretty exciting."
Natalia RadywylCo-Designing New Power in Australia's Public Sector
November 16, 2022
"When we pivoted because of business decisions, we felt anxious but kept adapting together."
Ruzanna RozmanGetting in Flow with Your Team
January 8, 2024
"The design project tracker used 1900 Excel functions mostly for capacity planning in quarterly design cycles."
Peter BoersmaHow to Define and Maintain a DesignOps Roadmap
October 3, 2023
"Traditional usability labs often force assistive tech users to use unfamiliar setups, creating barriers."
Sam ProulxSUS: A System Unusable for Twenty Percent of the Population
June 9, 2021
"Today’s problems come from yesterday’s solutions — unintended consequences emerge when systems aren’t fully understood."
Sheryl CababaExpanding your Design Lens with Systems Thinking
March 28, 2023
"Communication is an integral part of the chief of staff role, whether with leadership, the org, or partners."
Isaac HeyveldExpand DesignOps Leadership as a Chief of Staff
September 8, 2022
