What are design leaders are actually looking for in the age of AI? In this panel discussion, we brought together experienced design leaders from companies including Visa, Lululemon, and KPN to discuss how AI is changing the design profession — and why foundational design skills remain as important as ever. From hiring advice and portfolio reviews to AI workflows and business strategy, the conversation explored what designers should focus on to stay relevant as the industry evolves.
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Prefer to read? Check out an overview of the event below based on the transcript, cleaned up with AI:
Meet the Panelists
Cam Lay, CEO of Designlab, moderated the discussion with four experienced design leaders:
- Courtney Leonard – Design Director at Visa, leading product design and research teams across authentication, loyalty, data, and issuing solutions.
- Calvin Simms – UX Manager at Lululemon, where he leads design for the guest app experience and mentors design teams.
- Chris Jervis – UX Lead with more than 25 years of experience spanning web, mobile, and AI-first product design.
- Chrissy Welsh – VP of Experience at KPN and creator of Designlab's AI for UX Design course, with over two decades of experience across fintech, healthtech, and AI-powered product development.
The Skills That Matter More Than Ever
While AI is accelerating many aspects of design work, the panel agreed that the qualities that distinguish great designers remain deeply human.
Among the skills they emphasized were:
- User research and problem framing
- Storytelling and communication
- Behavioral design and understanding user needs
- Visual judgment and design taste
- Coaching and cross-functional collaboration
As Chris Jervis noted, AI allows designers to move much faster — but it also means teams can "ship problems much more quickly" if they lack strong design fundamentals.
Why Understanding the Problem Still Comes First
Several panelists emphasized that hiring managers are looking well beyond polished visuals.
Chrissy Welsh shared that when reviewing portfolios, she's looking for evidence that designers questioned the original problem instead of simply executing a brief. Strong candidates demonstrate exploration, explain why they made certain decisions, and show concepts they considered but ultimately rejected.
The panel agreed that AI can generate polished interfaces quickly, but it can't replace thoughtful reasoning behind design decisions.
AI Makes Judgment More Valuable
As AI-generated interfaces become increasingly polished, discernment becomes one of a designer's greatest strengths.
Courtney pointed to typography, hierarchy, accessibility, and consistency as areas where AI-generated work still frequently falls short.
Rather than accepting AI output at face value, designers need to understand when something is "good enough" for early exploration—and when craftsmanship is required for production-ready products.
As Chrissy explained, AI is excellent for generating ideas and accelerating workflows, but production environments still demand careful review, accessibility checks, security considerations, and human oversight.
Business Acumen Is Becoming a Competitive Advantage
The conversation also highlighted a skill that often receives less attention: understanding the business.
As organizations move faster with AI, designers increasingly need to understand product strategy, stakeholder priorities, and business goals—not just user needs.
Calvin Simms noted that designers who understand how their work affects the broader business become stronger collaborators and better partners across product teams.
Preparing for the Next Generation of Design Work
When asked what advice they would give designers entering the field today, the panel's message was clear:
Learn AI by using it.
Rather than waiting for perfect guidance, designers should actively experiment with new tools, build projects, test ideas, and develop workflows that incorporate AI thoughtfully.
At the same time, they encouraged designers not to neglect the fundamentals. Understanding research, interaction design, visual communication, and product thinking remains essential, and those skills become even more valuable when paired with AI.
AI Is a Tool—Not the Designer
One recurring theme throughout the discussion was that AI works best as a collaborator rather than a replacement.
Whether reviewing research, generating early concepts, summarizing meetings, or prototyping ideas, AI can dramatically accelerate parts of the design process. But designers remain responsible for asking better questions, validating outputs, making strategic decisions, and ensuring quality.
As the panelists emphasized throughout the conversation, the future belongs to designers who combine AI fluency with strong judgment — not those who rely on AI alone.
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