How I use (and don’t use) AI to design better in 2026

If you're a UX designer you've probably wondered lately with all of these AI tools will I be replaced by AI?

Well designers who use AI well can absolutely replace designers who don't I've seen designers use AI to design better I've seen designers use AI to design worse and I've seen designers who never use AI at all If you want to bulletproof your career for the next decade you want to be the first type And that's what this video is about Hey I'm Aliena If I had a design project today

this is how I'd use AI to design better and where I would not use AI Let's start with the problem space of the Double Diamond Design Process The whole point of having this part is to make sure we are solving the right problem We're supposed to start with divergence like primary and secondary research and then converged by synthesizing the research and get to a well-defined problem This of course is the theory

The reality I see is very different And that is a severe shrinkage of the first diamond And my suggestion is to use AI to expand this first diamond as much as possible because there's nothing worse than spending months designing for a problem that doesn't exist in the first place If you're working on a personal project don't just go ahead and design a whole new ride sharing app Okay?

there's Uber out there and how are you going to compete with that as a new product?

When you put this kind of project in your portfolio a hiring manager will see that this is a fake project and this person doesn't have business sense That it's not going to help you to get your dream job So I would use AI to fill in this business gap and choose a better topic from the get go I would tell ChatGPT that I'm going to start a real SaaS business and monetize from it

I would tell it my idea and ask it to do at least a market analysis a revenue model design and a revenue prediction And I would do this for many ideas until we get to a really strong one Here's an example script You can download it for free link in the description Now does this apply to client projects?

Yes but in a different way So many companies give very little power to designers to work on the problem space By the time we get a design project both the problem and the solution are already defined by the business stakeholders and they expect very fast turnaround like due yesterday So then it becomes “Just visualize what they said” this is a huge problem First

you don't have the time or the resources to actually understand the problem And because everyone else are already aligned You also don't have the power to propose new ideas which means you’ll by default have less impact on the company and less impact means lower pay Here's how we can use AI to turn the situation around I will use AI to draft three emails Take note on this one Number one is to whoever owns the project

and the point is to get myself to the project discovery meeting early on before the PM finalizes the PRD Number two is that I will draft an email plus a meeting invite to all relevant stakeholders before the problem is even defined And these people are product manager the content designer data analysts software engineers the legal team and UX researchers And this is a kick off meeting where everyone shares their ideas

so the team is aligned from the beginning And this one meeting alone has saved me so much time and so many iterations and I'm sure it'll help you too Number three is to the UX research team and the product manager And in this email I would propose a short primary user interview plan The goal is to get user interviews approval before jumping into design And AI can help you think from the business stakeholders’ perspective

So it can help you draft something more convincing These three emails can change the direction of a project and your career To help with your attention span I'll bring my baby I see so many people skipping the primary research step to “save time” And guess what? It backfires

When you skip primary research You lose your earliest chance to understand users Primary research means first-hand learning it’s not searching online And I see a lot of people using AI to help with research which is great But I would not not not suggest using AI research to replace primary research And instead I would use AI to help with primary research For example

draft a better recruiting email stronger interview questions and faster preparation And for note-taking I think AI tools such as Granola are great as a backup But I would still review polish and analyze the notes myself Because nuance and meaning are easy to miss and the judgment is still on you This next point applies more to personal projects I see many designers finishing the first diamond

with just a design brief A design brief focuses heavily on the user perspective which is very important and necessary But it does not include the business goals and technical constraints That makes the project feels a little bit fake and unrealistic Companies today are not just hiring designers who can make things look good They want designers who think in systems and can work with engineers The good news is that we can easily

fill in that gap with the help of AI I would use AI to draft a Product Requirements Document A PRD does not just describe the design ideas It also clarifies the product requirements It defines the business objective success metrics scope constraints dependencies and also risks Now as a summary in the problem space I like to use AI to expand this diamond as much as possible

so that I can make sure I'm solving the right problem for the right group of users What I will not do which I see a lot of people do is skip this entire diamond and jump right into the solution Trust me you don't want that because you will end up spending months discovering solutions for a problem that doesn't exist in the first place If you're working for yourself

that is a few months of work going to the trash If you are working in a company then that is a few million dollars Now let's move to the second diamond the solution space This is all about solving the problem right?

We first generate a range of possible solutions ideas and prototypes And then we narrow down refine and validate the best direction through testing And we finally get to something we can hand off to the engineers And this is again a diverge-and-converge cycle And here are some ways I use AI to make this better One thing I see a lot of junior designers do is using Lorem Ipsum

and it is this gibberish placeholder text It makes sense if all you want to do is just see your visual design weight and layout But in most cases realistic content always win because content is how you communicate what the product does It’s not decoration Content the text is part of the design I like to use Figma AI features to help with content If you are using a student email for Figma or working at a company

or enrolled in a Figma Partner bootcamp like Fast Track UX which is my program you may already have these features so follow along Otherwise you should consider upgrading to Figma Professional plan to unlock these AI features This also includes tools like Figma Make with unlimited files projects version history and so much more You can find more details about the plans in the link in the description The first feature I want to show you

is called Replace Content in Figma On the right side of the toolbar there's an icon called Actions Click that and you will find most of the Figma AI features here To replace any text select the text layer then click Replace Content and describe how you’d like it to be written For example Lorem Ipsum doesn't tell us what this text field is actually for

So instead I’ll replace it as a YouTube channel description to clearly show what this section of the design represents Once you describe it click Replace Content and Figma will generate the updated text for you Here you go Now here's the magic part You can actually replace multiple text elements all at once And this is what make this feature different from writing text in an external AI tool

and pasting it back For here we have multiple video cards I can select all of them and ask Figma to replace them in a specific way Here you go Now you shall try it for your project Let me show you another feature called Translate To And this one is so useful if you are designing for an international market So when I was working at eBay this happened in all of my early projects

We would design something in English and then bring it to engineering But just after a few months the marketing team will come back to us and say your design doesn't work in German because German text is just way longer and it breaks everything „Schreibt gerne einen Kommentar auf Deutsch, danke schön!“

And we didn't have these AI features so we had to copy each line of the text paste it to Google Translate and then paste it back to the design file line by line and then manually check whether the layout still worked and then adjust the design and then get someone to translate it professionally Now it is so much easier You can select an entire frame or even multiple frames go to Actions

click or just search for Translate To choose the language you want and in one click Figma will translate all the text in your design to that language I mean I would still highly recommend to have a dedicated person to refine a copy before launch But as a design test this is amazing There are so many other powerful AI features just inside the Actions panel I have a separate tutorial on that

and I will include it in my PDF in the description so check it out later I teach thousands of designers and help them to land a job in tech and I used to think that this next problem only apply to beginners But guess what?

It shows up in big tech as well And this common mistake is just horrible design documentation When we design we reference to many inspirations and steal like an artist We iterate fast we test fast and that means there are always so many versions before a project moves to engineering But so many designers just show the final version All their past explorations are either deleted hidden in another file that no one can find

or thrown into one messy page with no annotation Imagine a new stakeholder joins halfway through this project and asks “Have you tried A, B, C?”

and you did try it and it didn't work but you couldn't find it in your file and the next thing you know you are redoing all the design just to show them that it doesn't work Most designers skip documentation to move fast and it always backfire Here's another scenario: You're building a UX portfolio and you need to present your project in a case study But without documentation you don't remember how you got there

and you can't justify your decisions And that will make your case study weak So this is how I use AI to help When I'm in meetings with stakeholders or even just iterating with a friend I use an AI note-taking tool For example I like to use Granola and it can help me to summarize the meeting So at the very least I can just paste some meeting note to Figma file It's not perfect but it's the baseline

if you want to save time And in Figma this is what I do I keep the latest version at the top and I keep one major iteration per page On each page I annotate with clear large text on what did I change in this version Why I made these changes or who provided the feedback And 99% of the time I didn't really type it I talked to ChatGPT

and asked it to write a clear point form for me And this is a really good tip if you don't want to get repetitive stress syndrome and carpal tunnel on both of your hands and arms Guess how do I know?

When I design there are always moments where an interaction is just a little too complex to prototype properly in Figma I’m especially talking about complex elements like tables And in the past if something was hard to prototype I would just draw out my idea on Figma and then bring it to the engineer with some annotations Then we would discuss together about whether it's feasible But designers are in such a vulnerable situation here

because if you're the engineer what would you say?

Of course you would say it's hard to do because who wants to take on more work?

This is where I would use Figma Make It’s available with the Figma Professional plan The link is in the description Let's say I'm looking at a table which by the way that's 80% of my projects Just a table And I'm wondering: Can each column be both sortable and draggable at the same time?

Why not try it out and see if it's a good idea?

It only takes one minute with Figma Make Here's how: Select the frame in Figma Right click and choose “Send to Figma Make” Now I'm taken to a Figma Make project page In the prompt box let's describe what we want Don't overthink this I'll just say: “Make each column of the table both sortable and draggable.”

That's it Then I click this start icon Now Figma Make will try to make a functional prototype based on my ask This is the perfect moment to stretch look outside your window and maybe do a few squats It’s an amazing feeling because when you are taking rest AI is working for you And when you hear this sound effect it means Figma Make is ready And look I can actually interact with the table

and sort and drag each column Isn't that pure magic?

And immediately I can see that having two interactions in one box feels a little bit cramped so I decide not to move forward with this direction I just showed you how to bring your Figma design into Figma Make and prototype on top of it But what if you're starting a new project and don't even have a design file yet?

This happens a lot If you are proposing something to a new client or when you're trying to introduce a new feature on a page owned by another team Here's what I would do I would just take a screenshot of that page and then in Figma click Make in the top right to start a new Figma Make project Paste the screenshot into the project and describe how you’d like to prototype it Even with just a screenshot

Figma Make can generate an interactive prototype This works especially well in meetings when you want to quickly visualize an idea and demo it live But here's what I want you to be cautious of If you decide to move forward with an interaction created in Figma Make I would still bring the design back into Figma file and clearly annotate and document how the interaction works So I would paste the demo link for reference

but I would make it really clear that this is just a demo And the final product should follow the design file and adhere to the design system and specifications unless your demo looks perfect Now there are more advanced features in Figma Make such as connecting it to your own library and so much more Comment “Figma Make” if you want a dedicated tutorial video on Figma Make from me Lately I've seen not one not two

but many designers especially the designers working in startups starting a whole new completely different workflow Okay here's the standard more common design workflow And that is going from low fidelity design to a high fidelity prototype This by the way still works But the new workflow goes like this It goes from idea to prompt to prototype and then evaluate and iterate And in this new workflow

most of the design work is done directly inside AI tools like Figma Make And this makes sense for high-paced startups Because these startups want design in hours maximum days There's no such thing as spending one quarter designing a single feature in these startups And to be honest in these environments designers are often taking on a broader product role So your title might still say “Designer” but in reality you're acting as the Head of Product

So let's say I'm working as the designer of a very early stage startup or let's say I'm building my own product as a real business to earn money on the side Here’s what I would do First I would not skip anything in the first diamond So if you skipped that part of the video you should go back and rewatch it And once I have a clear Product Requirements Document I will paste it into Figma Make

and ask it to design based on it and then I hit send What we're doing here is pretty much asking Figma Make to design for us And you might ask did AI just replace me as a designer?

The answer is no and you'll see why And just as a reminder if your scope is large it may take a little while for Figma Make to generate something And while the first file is doing its work I do something else I start another Figma Make project and paste the exact same prompt again And you might ask did you just spend twice the tokens to get the same result?

Yes and no Twice the tokens maybe But even with the exact same prompt Figma Make will generate something different each time And I repeat this process three to five times Let's say for version three I'll paste the same prompt but I will choose a different AI model here Each model produces very different results so it's worth trying them out and compare the result And I do all this because I want to intentionally

create a divergent phase And as you can see none of them is perfect But each one has something I like In design it is almost always better to diverge first and then converge So you have options and don't get emotionally attached to the first idea But I also have to say there is no right answer in design and there's no such thing as the best design process so take what you like from what I said

and use your critical thinking And next I iterate Out of all the generated versions I might just choose one to go forward And in that case I will just iterate by giving Figma Make another prompt There are so many things I want to change so I'm not going to list them all at once I like to start with the bigger structure and then go to the smaller details like visuals and content

and Figma Make will update it for me By the way this process can take hours or even days so be patient And there are also other ways to iterate In the top right of Figma Make you can click Copy Design then open a regular Figma file and paste the design there and then you can manually refine and adjust everything inside your design file

And later on you can go back to Figma Make and paste your design and tell Figma Make to make it that instead Sometimes I even start a new Figma file and then create a wireframe myself If the structure feels too complex to describe clearly with words So as you can see this new workflow can get you to a fully working prototype fast But the process reminds me of a song

And it's called The Flight of the Bumblebee For copyright reason I cannot play it here but it goes something like this: [Aliena’s lovely voice] Yeah it can be really chaotic but I like to follow this overall picture First the structure This includes defining the happy path that's the core experience I want the 80% of users to go through

And I want that happy path to be super intuitive Then I iterate on the content The text matters a lot like what we said before Then I polish the visuals And that is where I spend more time in Figma then Figma Make But I don't aim for perfection here I like to aim for something like 7 or 8 out of 10 because the goal is to test fast not polish So next I test fast

How do I test?

Sometimes I test internally by asking teammates to pretend that they are users but the best test is always with real users And for startups it is also a great way to just build an early waitlist and validate demand before investing more time As a summary for the second diamond I like to use AI in areas where I'm not as strong or honestly don't have the time for things like writing strong copy quickly

drafting summaries for design iterations or building prototypes that will be too complex to build If I was just doing it in Figma design file and if I'm working with an early-stage startup then I’ll use Figma Make more heavily In those cases I may design directly inside Figma Make and follow this new “Flight of the Bumblebee” workflow trademarked by Aliena Cai And in this way I can reach a functional prototype much faster

I like to save the best for the end and here you go You really need to see this In this graph each dot represents 3.2 million people The entire grid represents 8.1 billion humans on Earth Out of all of us THIS is how many people have actually tried an AI chatbot like ChatGPT And that is about 16% of the global population You might think it's a lot but keep watching

Now let's go deeper THIS represents the people paying 20 USD or more per month for an AI product And finally THIS is how many people are actually building things with AI And that is just 0.04% of the global population In this fast-paced world It is so easy to feel FOMO to feel like you've been left behind or even replaced by AI

But the fact that the algorithm even suggested this video to you and then you stayed until now means that you are fine If you ever felt burnt out or irritated just listening to the word AI I'm with you I don't have a perfect answer but in these confused moments I try to remind myself to be more human more connected more kind more funny and unapologetically myself It is true that AI might become really good

at designing coding writing pretty much everything so it makes sense for us to update our workflow and take advantage of this technology But there's one thing that AI will never do better than us and that is being us When you handle a difficult client with patience and empathy people remember how you made them feel When you lighten a tense meeting with humor people remember how you made them feel And when you talk about a hard topic

and leave people feeling at ease or inspired people remember how you made them feel And when opportunities come up those people will think of you not because you were the fastest or used the most advanced tools but because of how you made them feel AI can amplify what we bring to the table but it will never replace who we actually are Knowing this can help us replace our fear with curiosity and replace our greed with empathy

And just see how far that would take us If you want to navigate this new era together to design and build with these tools while staying deeply human you should subscribe and turn on all notifications And if you're serious about UX design and want to land a well-paid design job in tech you shall check out my Figma Partner Design Bootcamp Fast Track UX When you enroll you'll also get access to Figma Professional Plan

If you like this video you'll also like this video so I will see you there My name is Aliena Thank you so much for watching How do I pronounce this?

My high school German does not help that much I guess Let me use AI to learn this real quick by the way „Schreibt gerne einen Kommentar auf Deutsch, danke schön!“

[Aliena’s lovely voice]