The work that is leaving the designer’s desk.
Some work is leaving because machines do it well. Some is leaving because the thing it produced no longer needs to exist.
Redlines, every breakpoint, every empty and error state drawn by hand. Systems now generate these from a handful of decisions, and the designer’s attention goes to the few edge cases that actually change how the product feels.
Interfaces will increasingly be assembled at the moment of use, shaped to the person and the task in front of them. We stop designing the screen and start designing the range of screens that are allowed to exist.
When people can state what they want directly, deep navigation becomes the fallback rather than the front door. Information architecture still matters, but as the model of the domain an agent reasons over, not the map a person walks.
Generative rendering produces colour, material and finish explorations by the hundred. The industrial designer’s job narrows to curating them and to the physical sampling that no render replaces.
Standard details, schedules and compliance checks drift towards generated drafts that a professional reviews and signs. Liability will keep a human signature on the drawing for longer than capability alone would.