AI Is Making UX Worse — Not Better
Since AI exploded into the tech industry, everything has changed incredibly fast. The design industry changed together with the rest of IT. Everyone is talking about AI. Everyone wants to implement it.
And honestly — I understand why.
People want to stay modern. They want to use powerful new tools. There’s nothing wrong with that.
But at the same time, I started noticing more and more clients coming to me with AI startup ideas. Most of them are not from the tech world. They have an idea, a problem they want to solve, and they believe AI makes building products fast and easy.
Usually, they have a very aggressive timeline:
“Can we launch MVP in one month?”
Because they want to show something to investors, clients, or early users as quickly as possible.
Again — understandable.
But the result is often the same: We get rushed products without proper research or user testing. We get polished visuals instead of real expertise. We get presentations instead of validated products.
And nobody really knows whether the product solves an actual user problem or not.
For designers who genuinely care about creating meaningful products, these kinds of projects can become extremely demotivating.
Because instead of building thoughtful UX, we end up decorating assumptions.
AI itself is not the problem.
The problem is that many founders think AI removes the need for product thinking, research, and UX strategy.
It doesn’t.
If anything, AI products require even better UX.
Because when technology becomes more powerful, clarity and trust become even more important.
So before taking on another AI project, maybe designers should ask themselves a few questions:
- Do I actually believe in this product?
- Does the client truly understand the user’s problem?
- Is AI really the best solution here?
- Has any real research been done?
- Are we building a product — or just an impressive-looking demo?
Because right now, many AI startups look innovative.
But very few of them actually feel good to use.