Every once in a while, a new tool changes what it means to build. You might not notice it right away. You realize it later, when you look back and see that something ended and something new began.

I’ve been working in product design long enough to witness a few of these moments. I remember building early websites in FrontPage, then the rise of Flash, Sketch, and eventually Figma. Each tool didn’t just speed things up. It changed how we worked together. It made design more collaborative, more visual, and more flexible.

Now, we are entering another shift. It is harder to explain, but easy to feel. AI is starting to change the way we design.

Traditionally, designers have been caught between two groups. One group builds the product, and the other uses it. Designers help turn complexity into something people can actually use. That role still matters. But what is changing is who gets to take part in that process.

People who are closer to users often understand the problems more clearly. Today, with AI helping people create basic interfaces, the biggest barrier is no longer technical skill. It is understanding the problem. This means that people like product managers, support teams, and even the users themselves can now build working ideas without needing to wait for a designer.

In the past, only about one percent of people could code. With AI tools, that number might grow to ten percent. This opens the door for new kinds of creators. People who feel the problem directly can now bring forward real solutions. When empathy is paired with fast prototyping, good ideas can come from anywhere.

You have probably seen charts that describe the design process. Diagrams like the double diamond, the loop, or the spiral. The message is always the same. Real design happens during the process of building, not just before it. This is one reason the tech world moves so fast. Feedback happens quickly. You do not design by sitting and thinking alone. You design by building and adjusting.

With AI, that process becomes even faster.

Right now, AI is most helpful at the beginning. It can explore ideas, sketch out early versions, and suggest things that humans might not have considered. It is not yet great at turning those ideas into polished, production-ready work. But it is improving. The best teams will use both human judgment and AI tools. They will explore more directions and make better decisions, all in less time.

In the past, only large design teams could do this well. Now, even a small team, or a single person, can work this way.

Anyone on a team can now suggest a real idea and back it up with a prototype. That changes how meetings work. It speeds up progress. It allows more people to take part in creating solutions.

Most importantly, it gives more influence to people who are closest to the user. Designers are still important. But we will need to connect even more with real users. Tools can generate output, but they cannot feel. People can feel confusion, frustration, and joy. And that kind of insight still leads to the best design choices.

Once you truly understand a problem, AI helps you turn your idea into something real, and it happens fast.

That is the core shift. The gap between an idea and a working product is getting smaller.

And as that gap closes, more people will be able to build.