A friend and previous colleague recently shared an article with me titled "AI Is Flipping UX Upside Down". She asked what I thought and instead of sending her a long-winded text reply, I thought I'd write this post.

The article made some great points and shared some strong provocations, but also purported what felt to me like a fair bit of hand-waving and clickbait. Here’s what stood out to me—and where I think the conversation needs more nuance.

1. Figma is a Titanic?

Possibly...but I'm not betting on it anytime soon. The tools we rely do have a shelf life. The story of InVision is a great example. However, the suggestion that Figma is doomed felt like clickbait from the rip. Yes, AI is challenging the canvas-based and UI design paradigms. But Figma’s not asleep at the wheel. They're already building AI features and the foreseeable blurring of lines between Figma and tools like Framer and Webflow doesn't feel too far off.

Figma won’t vanish overnight. The bigger question is: Will it remain the center of gravity? Or will design workflows become more fluid, integrated, and task-oriented—embedded in tools like Miro, Notion, dev environments, and IDEs?

2. AI Is the End of UI?

Not Quite. I get the argument—AI can, and will reduce reliance on traditional UIs. But let’s not pretend interfaces are going extinct. The way I see it, the real shift is moving towards hybrid experiences.

AI-first interactions work well for:

• Generating content: "Create 5 different variations"

• Complex queries: "Summarize last week's meetings"

• Configuring flows: Think Zapier + GPT

Traditional UI still excels at:

• Visual comparison (e.g., shopping, dashboards)

• Precision tasks (e.g., tax software, banking interfaces)

• Speed and confidence (e.g., toggles, buttons, forms)

AI is great at context. UI is great at control. We need both.

3. Not Every Product Should Be AI-First

AI-first isn’t automatically better. In some cases, it’s cognitive overhead. Designing a light switch as a prompt interface is overkill when a simple toggle works faster. This is where product sense matters.

The future isn't AI-first or UI-first. It’s use-case first.

4. "What Matters Is UX, Not UI"

I think this is half true. Sure—UX is the strategy. UI is the tactic. But this quote oversimplifies a much messier truth. Great UI is part of great UX. It’s how people experience your thinking.

In a tightening job market, designers need range. UX systems thinking and UI craft. If you only do one, you're easy to replace. If you do both well, you’re a force multiplier.

Here’s Where It Gets Interesting

AI isn't killing UX. It's becoming a UX problem.

Interfaces are becoming agents. Designers now have to shape behavior, trust, and feedback.

Prompt design, affordance design, error handling—all of this is design.

As creation gets democratized, we design not just for users, but for creators.

Final Take: The job of UI in product design isn’t disappearing. It’s evolving—fast. We’re no longer just designing screens. We’re designing systems, behaviors, and moments across AI, UI, and everything in between.

It’s a little messy. A little weird. And honestly? That’s what makes it fun.

I'm fallible. I'm sure I glazed over some concepts and missed some points. So, I'm curious what others think. Where do you see AI shifting your UI needs and product design instincts?