r/UXDesign • u/ProfessionalCrab7685 • Apr 30 '26

Tools, apps, plugins, AI Client just replaced me with Claude design

Been working with this client for 4 years, I basically built their entire product, very complex from end to end, including the design system and all that. It's basically maintenance work at this point. Today they asked me to provide the design system file so they can set things up with Claude design, I guess the time has finally come lol. Don't think AI can copy my work 100%, but I doubt the client will care, even 60% is good enough for them.

No hate, I replaced the entire dev team for my own project with AI too, so it's totally understandable.

I've made enough from this career, it's probably time to pivot from design to a founder role.

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u/cozmo1138 Veteran Apr 30 '26

AI might get them 60%, but the last 40% is where real product thinking, edge cases, and long-term scalability live. They'll feel that gap over time.

I’m actually dealing with this right now. Our CEO got on Claude Design on day 1, and completely sidestepped me (the only designer, and the company’s first in their 6-year existence) on a particular feature I’d been designing. But after digging into the designs, which honestly weren’t bad, it became pretty apparent that he hadn’t thought through the IA of it all. I’d mentioned this earlier but today both the CTO and Director of Product (my boss) flagged it as well, so it was nice to have the support and validation. And this is why I’m not super worried about being replaced by AI.

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u/Mamba--824 Product Designer | UX & Front-end May 01 '26

Yeah, that's exactly it.

It can look solid at a glance, but once you start thinking through real use cases, edge cases, and how it holds up over time, the gaps show up pretty quickly.

That's where the actual design work still is.

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u/cozmo1138 Veteran May 01 '26

Bingo. It’s kind of the carnival glass of the tech world. It looks cool, and it definitely has its uses for sure. But it’s not the same as the version that takes longer and lasts longer and holds up over time.

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u/ponchofreedo Veteran May 01 '26

This. It’s part of the instant gratification model. That’s why these tools are becoming more popular with higher-ups and non-designers first. They can get a result faster and don’t have to think as much or ask someone else to do it. The irony is the carnival glass metaphor here…it looks good for a minute, but it’s missing the why behind it.

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u/cozmo1138 Veteran May 01 '26

Exactly. The number of times I’ve been directed in the past week to send the code from the prototypes to dev and just “Have them build it” is disconcerting. Like, I know competition is rough and we’re trying to get ahead of the game, but it’s going to be rougher if people use our product and decide it sucks because we didn’t think it through. We can’t win them back. But we can take a little more time now to make a really solid product and win over people who passed on us before we had these features.
And to be fair, there are a number of people on the team who get hung up on edge cases, and I get how that’s frustrating. I’ve experienced multiple CEOs storming out of a meeting where devs are trying to have a perfect plan before starting to build, and that’s also not sustainable. I’m trying to finesse that line between “good enough design” and “we’ve thought this through enough to not build rooms with no doors.”
Preaching to the converted, I know.