AI won't replace designers, but designers who use it will outcompete those who don't. Machines can generate solutions from existing patterns, but solving real user problems requires human empathy and understanding that AI can't replicate. The future is hybrid: AI as a tool that amplifies what designers do.
Some people might say that the rise of AI and automation might take the job of designers, but I strongly doubt that because I believe that AI and automation is something that designers should understand and should leverage so that they can take advantage of that to speed their work process and also aid their design process as well. So I believe that the designers that actually take advantage of AI and automation will be the ones that will replace the designers that don't. Think about it. AI can learn from existing and present patterns to put design solutions together. Or these design solutions from what we see today are at best generic. They don't solve every problem. A lot of user problems still require that human touch to be able to empathize with the user, understand what their core need is, to be able to provide a solution to that need. This kind of empathy is only achievable by humans, and it's going to be difficult for a machine or some kind of language model to be able to get in touch with the
