AI Didn't Make Me Faster. It Made Us Better.
2025 gave me something I didn't expect: not just efficiency, but a crash course in what AI can't replace.
The Setup
Everyone talks about AI as a productivity hack. Faster prototypes, quicker iterations, less grunt work. And sure, that's all true. But after months of experimenting with AI in my design process, I've realized the real unlock isn't speed. It's collaboration.
Here's what actually happened: I got curious about how AI could help me work more efficiently. I played with tools. I automated workflows. I cut prototype time from days to hours. But the hard part wasn't figuring out how to use AI. It was figuring out when, and more importantly, with whom.
Because AI tools are everywhere now. Claude for thinking through problems. v0 for quick prototypes. Cursor for bridging design and code. The list keeps growing. But the real challenge? Finding common ground with people who don't use the same tools, don't have the same workflows, and definitely don't have the same comfort level with letting AI into the process.
That's where the interesting stuff happened.
The Real Unlock
I learned that empathy matters more than ever. That picking the right tool isn't about what's fastest. It's about what your team can actually adopt. AI accelerates the "0 to 1" phase beautifully, but the contextualization, the strategy, the why? That still needs human hands and human judgment.
The experiment that solidified this for me was a rapid prototyping sprint under serious time constraints. My colleague and I co-created a case study about it. Less about me personally, more about what we learned together. But my personal take? AI didn't just make me faster. It forced me to get better at collaboration, at translating between tools and people, at knowing when to automate and when to slow down and explain.
If you're curious about the tactical breakdown (the tools, the timeline, the actual prototype process), I wrote about it in detail with my team.
External Case Study
Lightning-Fast Prototyping with AI: Rapid Prototyping Experiments Under Time Constraints
A collaborative deep-dive into the tactical implementation and learnings from our rapid prototyping experiment with AI tools.
But if you take one thing away from this: the skill AI can't replace isn't technical. It's empathy. It's finding common ground. It's the willingness to learn new tools not because they're shiny, but because they help you meet people where they are.
That's the work that actually matters.
A Note on This Piece
This piece reflects my personal journey experimenting with AI in design workflows throughout 2025. The case study linked above is a collaborative effort with my colleagues at INA Digital Edu, diving deeper into the tactical implementation and learnings from our rapid prototyping experiment.