15 min
How to design products in the AI age
In a world where AI is everywhere, design is what sets your product apart. Learn how to build for speed, resonance, and execution in the AI era.
In the AI age, everyone gets the same jetpack. The difference is in how you fly.
AI has leveled the playing field. What once required deep technical skill is now accessible via API. From image generation to full-stack code scaffolding, building functionality is easier than ever. But here’s the catch: your competitors can do the same.
That means your product’s real value no longer lies in what it can do—but in how it does it. Welcome to the new battleground: design.
1. AI Is the New Baseline. Design Is the Differentiator.
When every app can auto-complete, summarize, or generate, those features lose their edge. The AI wave is flooding every category. So what makes one product stand out?
- Not features.
- Not speed.
- Not AI.
Instead, it’s the experience: How your product feels, how it behaves, and how well it understands its users.
"Design isn't about making products work better — it's about making them matter more." — Dylan Field
Design is what makes a product memorable. It's how users build emotional connection. In the AI era, design is the moat.
2. Functionality Is Commodity. Resonance Is Currency.
You can build a tool that works. But will anyone care?
The best products today win by creating emotional resonance:
- They feel like they were made just for their users.
- They respect the user’s voice, style, and culture.
- They get the job done and make you feel understood.
Take Granola, for example. It's an AI note-taking app, but unlike others, it doesn't try to replace the user. Instead, it enhances the user's own notes. This subtle choice resonated deeply with its audience (especially founders and VPs), leading to organic, team-by-team growth.
The lesson? Don't just automate. Empower.
3. Execution > Ideas (Always)
The TikTok founding story is a great reminder: sometimes, the breakthrough isn't in the tech—it's in the framing. TikTok didn’t invent short videos. It simply asked, "What if every piece of content got a chance to be seen?"
Ideas are everywhere. But very few teams execute them well. In fact, most:
- Wait until things feel "ready."
- Overbuild in isolation.
- Quit after one setback.
Execution is a war of attrition. Products that win are:
- Shipped fast.
- Iterated in public.
- Refined through real-world feedback.
Figma didn’t launch with multiplayer. They added it after users demanded it. That’s what great execution looks like.
4. Lower the Floor, Raise the Ceiling
AI makes creation accessible. It lowers the floor for non-designers and non-coders. That’s powerful. But the best products don’t stop there.
They also raise the ceiling:
- More power for pros.
- More control for those who want it.
- Depth that scales with skill.
Think Minecraft. Or Figma. Or Lovable for that matter. Simple to start, infinite to master. That’s the bar.
Design your product to be:
- Approachable for beginners.
- Extensible for experts.
And always optimize for flow. Dylan Field calls it “vibe coding.” When users get fast feedback and enter a loop of creation, they stick around.
5. Design for Human + AI Collaboration
You’re no longer just designing a UI. You’re designing a relationship:
- Between the user.
- And the AI assistant.
That means:
- Transparency: Show what the AI is doing.
- Control: Let users guide, tweak, and override.
- Trust: Make failure graceful and recovery easy.
- Personality: Tune the AI to match your audience.
Gumloop nails this. It lets users drag modules onto a canvas and delegate complex logic to an AI agent under the hood. The user stays in control, but the AI does the heavy lifting.
Designing for this hybrid dynamic is a new discipline. But it's where the magic happens.
6. Start with One Niche. Go Deep.
In the AI era, features will be copied overnight. What won’t be copied?
- Community trust.
- Deep understanding of a user base.
- Cultural fluency.
This is where niche resonance becomes your superpower.
Winning a niche lets you:
- Ship features others don’t even see.
- Tune AI models with better data.
- Build strong feedback loops.
This is the Niche Flywheel:
- Nail one niche.
- Get high-signal data.
- Build better models/features.
- Deepen lock-in.
- Expand sideways into adjacent segments.
Being loved by a few is more powerful than being somewhat liked by many.
7. Iterate Fast. Design with the User in the Loop
AI enables faster prototyping, faster building, and faster shipping. So the best teams move quickly with their users:
- Use feedback channels early and often.
- Run lightweight experiments.
- Refactor based on usage, not guesses.
Design is no longer a phase. It’s a continuous loop:
- Ship.
- Learn.
- Adjust.
- Repeat.
8. Design Is the New Execution
Everyone gets the same tools now. The difference is how you wield them.
AI may write your copy, your code, even your layout. But it can’t:
- Understand your user’s worldview.
- Build trust.
- Create emotional connection.
That’s your job.
And that’s why in the AI age, design is the ultimate differentiator.
Final Takeaways:
- AI is table stakes. Design is what makes you win.
- Execution is everything. The best builders ship and learn in public.
- Design for resonance. Emotional connection is the new moat.
- Start with a niche. Nail one use case. Go deep. Build out.
- Always include humans. Empower them. Respect them. Make them the hero.
In the end, it’s not about what your product does. It’s about how it feels to use.
So design boldly. And build with love.
Resources
Contrarian Crew Welcome to the Age of Execution - Contrarian Thinking
Y Combinator Dylan Field: Exploring the idea maze, vibe coding, and the power of “locking in”