AI design workflow
How to build your first AI design workflow as a designer in 2025 and beyond.
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Tired of your Figma design getting butchered by devs? 👀 And PMs rewriting your UX logic mid-sprint?
You’re not alone. Here's how top teams are finally staying aligned—without extra meetings or messy Slack threads. 👇
Designers,
When GPT was first introduced to me by my friend, I never thought I would rely on something like AI for my tasks. Fast forward to today, I use GPT-4o for almost everything.
I was on a call with my manager and I asked him for his honest opinion - if he thinks AI can displace designers. (It’s honestly all over the internet.) Not now, maybe but what about when we’re on GPT-7 or 8?
I already see designers using tools like Firefly, Runway, and Midjourney (at least some, if not all). According to a Weavely.ai survey, 86% of designers rely on ChatGPT for work.
But the real question is, if designers are using AI, then what is the best way to do that?
While scrolling through the internet, I came across multiple examples showing how just the right prompt & resources can make the work much easier.
Coming back to the question, he told me clearly that the problem isn’t with AI, it’s whether designers know how to best utilize it.
There’s no chance a designer can be replaced if they know how to make AI work for them.
It’s simple: “AI won’t replace you because someone still has to make it work.”
So let’s dive a bit deeper into this👇🏻
Are AI designers the big thing now?
I was scrolling through X to see how designers are actually utilizing AI in the best way possible. And designers casually post mind-blowing ways in which they use AI in their workflows. I’m not even talking about generic “use ChatGPT for ideas” posts. I’m talking about real, tangible applications, like someone building a Figma plugin that turns designs into production-ready code with Claude, or another using AI to test dozens of UX copy variations in seconds, tightening tone without losing brand voice.
I realized that the best designers, not necessarily the most experienced, but the most adaptive, are using AI like a second brain. Not to replace their creativity, but to stretch it further, faster.
Here are some of the best examples I saw:
These are just a few examples, but honestly, you can find hundreds like them if you spend just 10 minutes online. The point isn’t just to be impressed, it’s to get curious. What can you build with this? How can you integrate AI into your process in a way that doesn’t just save time, but sharpens your thinking?
1. How to speed up your ideas with AI?
Designers often start from a blank page.
I agree, ideation is supposed to be messy but it shouldn’t be slow. Whether you're building a new product, improving a flow, or designing a micro-feature, ik the blank canvas problem is real. And yes scrolling for ideas is so draining after a few minutes.
So, how do we use AI in the best way possible?
Let’s take a real-world example: a product designer working on a smart kitchen companion app. Instead of waiting for a team ideation sprint, they dropped a simple but structured prompt into ChatGPT:
“Give me 20 app feature ideas for a kitchen assistant app targeted at busy professionals. The app should use voice input and AI. Make them functional, not just fun.”
Within seconds, they had:
Meal planning suggestions based on time + ingredients
A real-time cooking assistant with voice-guided timers
Integration with health tracking apps
Auto-generated grocery lists with price comparison
A leftover management system for sustainability
Voice-based recipe shortcuts
…and 15+ more.
That’s not final design work. But it’s more than enough to spark team discussions, group ideas into themes, or sketch flows for concept testing.
(Btw, I was reading that a McKinsey study on AI productivity found that teams using generative AI in early-stage brainstorming reduced project timelines by up to 40% without compromising creativity.)
To make ideation with ChatGPT high-signal and useful, use this formula: