The Design Role AI Is About to Create

So my previous prediction was that UI design companies will turn into branding agencies like Yellow Raptor, without the depth or knowledge. It’s just a way to survive the AI apocalypse.

Here’s another prediction I’ll make relating to AI and the design industry. This isn’t something you’ll hear elsewhere. It’s also kind of a self-fulfilling prophecy. And you most definitely heard it here first.

After UI, UX, product and process/service design, a new kind of design role will emerge that combines these disciplines with user journeys, systems thinking, design thinking and experience design, all around the AI layer.

It’s Harness Design.

The core problem is simple: what should the human do, what should the AI do, and how should the two work together?

Harness Designers will be cofounder-level, multidisciplinary designers who decide how humans and AI connect through products, systems, interactions and touchpoints. They’ll think about not just interfaces, but the entire relationship between the human and the intelligent system.

I’m already being approached for what I believe are Harness Designer roles, although the people approaching me don’t really know what to call the role yet. I’ve also been playing this role for my own AI product ideas.

That’s why I think this is partly a self-fulfilling prophecy. The work is already emerging. The industry just hasn’t named it yet.

Harness Designers will need to be multidisciplinary and above mid-senior level in terms of skills and experience. AI is making execution cheaper, which makes judgment, decision-making, systems thinking and originality more valuable, not less.

So that’s my prediction, or perhaps my self-fulfilling prophecy.

Tech companies will start looking for people in Harness Designer roles. And as AI makes production cheaper, I think more companies will move toward being product-led again, where the real differentiation is in the product, the system and the experience.