Series
The New Craft
As AI tools make professional-looking design accessible to everyone, craft becomes the differentiator. This series explores how real design craft evolves in an AI-driven world, and how to spot the difference between commodity and craft.
Articles in this series 6
Everyone has the same AI tools. That's exactly why craft matters more
AI design tools have made 'good enough' free—which means if your competitor can generate the same landing page in ten minutes, you don't have a brand. You have a template. After 22 years of building digital products through every industry disruption, I've learned that craft isn't dying. It's evolving. And the gap between commodity and craft is widening.
Design isn't the deliverable: It's the hidden work that makes products succeed
AI can generate the visible 10% of design, the deliverables. But the invisible 90% is what makes products actually succeed. This is where craft lives, and where AI can't go.
Standing out when everyone has the same tools
Which AI startup has the purple gradient and sparkle icon? They all do. When everyone uses the same AI tools with similar prompts, everyone ends up indistinguishable. The brands that survive the commoditization wave won't be the ones that prompt best, they'll be the ones that know who they are and build systems to express it.
My actual AI workflow after 22 years in design
After 22 years of building products, I'm not going to tell you AI changes everything, or that it's overhyped. Both takes are lazy. Here's exactly how I use AI: the specific tools, the actual workflows, and the places where I still do things by hand. Speed is real. Judgment isn't automated. That's the nuance most people miss.
The multiplication effect: Why AI-augmented teams beat AI-augmented individuals
One person + AI = more output. Multiple experts + AI = exponentially better outcomes. The first is addition. The second is multiplication. Solo with AI, you touch the surface of every discipline. With a team, each augmented expert brings depth the others can't match. The math is clear—and so are the results.
The craft test: Questions that reveal whether you're getting real design or AI commodity
You're done not when there's nothing left to add, but when there's nothing left to take away. That principle sounds elegant—in practice, it's brutally hard. As AI floods the market with professional-looking commodity, knowing how to spot real craft becomes a critical skill.