#166 The Great Role Shift: Design Engineers, Claude Design, and What It Means for You

Okay, so let me start by painting you the full picture pretty much because the data on this is pretty fascinating.

I think that when you hear it all together, a lot of things you've been experimenting at work will suddenly make sense.

There is this big industry rep- report that came out, the AI in Design Report 2026, and the number that jumped out at me first was this: 65% of designers say they are now regularly doing work that used to belong to product managers and engineers, so like coding, prototyping research, things that would have been a completely different job titles two years ago and, and now just quietly part of what we do on a Tuesday or a Thursday.

And here's what makes it even more interesting because you might think, okay, so designers are expanding, we're taking over more territory, but it goes the other way too.

40% of designers say their PMs and their engineers are now doing design work.

They are opening the AI tools themselves, and they are generating screens.

They are making visual decisions that used to land on our desk first.

So it's not that our role is growing or shrinking.

It's more like the walls between all of the roles are dissolving from both sides at the same time.

Everyone is stepping into everyone else's space.

Not sure if you're feeling the same.

I'm also really curious to get your point on it, so please share a comment, your take on it, um, in the, in the podcast comments.

I, I read every comment, so I would really appreciate that.

And you can see the shift in the everyday numbers as well.

So weekly AI usage among designers went from 54% to 91% in a single year, which is just an unbelievable jump, and three-quarters of designers now use AI every single day.

And what I find [laughs] almost funny, the average designer isn't working with one or maybe two AI tools anymore.

It's seven, seven different tools as part of a completely normal working week when it was maybe three just a year ago.

But now here comes the part that I find a little bit concerning, and maybe you will recognize yourself in this because while all of this was happening, the expectation exploded.

73% of designers say the pressure has clearly gone up: faster turnarounds, more output, and more and more often people don't want a mock-up from, from you anymore.

They want a working prototype or actual code.

And at the same time, only 28% of organizations have formally changed anything about how they work.

So the job descriptions, the performance reviews, and the hiring cri- uh, hiring criteria, most of that is still written for a world that does not exist anymore.

So if you've had this feeling lately that your official job and your actual... your actual job, so the official one and the actual job, are somehow very... two, two very different things, I think that you're not imagining this because this gap is real, it's measurable, and basically our entire industry is sitting in it right now, and what I find hopeful- Is that out of this gap, completely new kinds of designers are emerging, and the report gives them names that I honestly, honestly love.