Three months ago, I watched my 12-year-old nephew create a logo for his school project in fifteen minutes using AI. The result was stunning: clean typography, perfect color harmony, professional execution. It took me back to 2010 when I spent a month learning Photoshop just to create a simple banner for my first website.

As someone who’s spent a decade and a half building products and working alongside brilliant designers, I found myself asking an uncomfortable question: If a kid can now produce professional-grade design work in minutes, what does that mean for the designers I know and respect?

This isn’t just about technology disrupting an industry. It’s about something deeper: the relationship between skill, creativity, and value in a world where artificial intelligence can replicate human expertise at the click of a button.

When everyone’s a designer, quality becomes relative
Here’s what the optimistic articles about AI democratization don’t tell you: we’re also witnessing the commoditization of design expertise. The same tools that empower non-designers are flooding the market with what industry veterans call “generic AI branding.”

I recently scrolled through Behance and Dribbble, once showcases of human creativity, now increasingly populated with AI-generated work that feels eerily similar. The aesthetic is polished but soulless, like walking through a beautifully designed hotel lobby that somehow lacks personality.

Eric Karkovack, a veteran web designer, captured this concern perfectly when he noted that companies are increasingly choosing “passable” AI outputs over hiring professionals.