Design leaders: AI will be the intern, not the replacement

The design industry is bracing for artificial intelligence, but not in the way many feared. Business leaders across the sector are pushing back against the notion that generative AI will hollow out their profession, arguing instead that the technology functions more like an overqualified assistant than a replacement for skilled work.

Mat Hunter, who runs the Design Council, a charity that advocates for the industry, frames the shift plainly: designers are already using AI, but they're using it to make their work better, not to eliminate themselves. He acknowledges that technology has always displaced workers, but he believes designers possess the imagination to adapt and find new opportunities. The UK needs more professional designers, he says, not fewer. The numbers seem to back him up. Between 2019 and the end of 2023, the design sector grew by 40 percent—nearly double the economy's overall expansion rate of 23 percent. Employment in design-related fields across construction, services, and manufacturing climbed 15 percent between 2020 and 2025, even as AI tools like ChatGPT and Claude became widely available.

Deborah Dawton, chief executive of the Design Business Council, offers a more pointed argument: what protects designers from being replaced by AI is precisely what machines cannot easily replicate—skill, experience, empathy, and deep sectoral knowledge. A designer who understands the nuances of their industry, who knows how materials behave and how users think, operates in a different league from an algorithm. She notes that imitation and copying have plagued the design world for decades; AI hasn't invented the problem, it's just given it new tools. When companies used computer-aided design software decades ago, draughtspeople were displaced, but the industry expanded and absorbed workers elsewhere.

Andrew Duff, who leads the Society of Garden and Landscape Designers, captures the prevailing sentiment in his field: design firms are treating AI as "the intern in the office," not as a replacement for experienced staff. It's a useful metaphor—the technology handles routine tasks, speeds up iteration, and frees designers to focus on the harder work of creativity and judgment. Yet the reality is more complicated. Some freelancers, including designers, have told journalists they're now picking up tedious work correcting errors that AI systems have introduced. A King's Institute study found that 57 percent of the public believes AI will cause widespread unemployment, a fear that doesn't match what the employment data currently shows.

The design economy's scale is often underestimated. The sector now generates £136.7 billion in gross value added annually—larger than the entire UK retail industry, which contributes £114 billion, and nearly twice the size of accommodation and food services. The south-east dominates, accounting for £43.3 billion of that total, but other regions are catching up. Wales saw design income rise 88 percent over eight years, and the north-east climbed 67 percent, though both started from smaller bases.

The real threat to the profession, according to industry leaders, isn't AI at all. It's the collapse of interest in design education. Entries for design and technology GCSEs fell 68 percent over the past decade, a decline that suggests the pipeline of future designers is shrinking. Schools lack specialist teachers and equipment. Dawton argues that if the industry is to inspire the next generation of designers—what she calls "world shapers"—the education system needs investment now. The sector may be growing and adapting to AI, but it's simultaneously losing the young people who might sustain that growth in the years ahead.