From Tools to Thinking Systems – How AI is redesigning design and our tools

This is a watercolor painting that I further enhanced using AI.

We are living through a shift that feels subtle on the surface, but is in reality profound in its consequences. For years and decades, we have been thinking of software like Photoshop, Illustrator, Premiere or and since a few years about Figma as tools. Interfaces we learn, master, and gradually become faster with.
That assumption is quietly dissolving.
What is emerging instead is something fundamentally different: design software is turning into thinking systems.
Not tools we operate step by step – but systems we describe intent to.

The Mega-Trend: From Execution to Intention

At the core of this transformation lies a simple but radical shift:

• Prompt + KI-Agent replaces manual tool operation
• Automated variants replace repetitive design iterations
• Fewer clicks, less precision work on pixel level
• More “creative direction” instead of “creative execution”

This does not mean that design and its craftsmanship disappears – perhaps it even makes the handmade more valuable. But through hands-on, physical making we learn. If, however, more and more is automated from innovation stage to innovation stage, we increasingly lose opportunities to learn ourselves. And if we have self-learning systems in the future, we will lose even more chances to learn.
For design, this also means that creativity is changing: because beyond the creativity that exists within us, we primarily learn through experimentation. But if we can no longer experiment ourselves, less can be learned.
In any case, what craftsmanship is – and where it is situated – is changing and will continue to change. Design is moving to another, higher level of abstraction – from making things to deciding what should be made at all, or perhaps even just selecting from what has already been generated.
We are gradually leaving behind a time in which creativity was strongly tied to the use of tools – with accidents that emerged as byproducts or intermediate steps, often not appreciated at first, but later turned out to be the best solution or an important step toward a new idea. These kinds of moments will become rarer or may disappear entirely. Instead, we will become part of a dialogue with systems that generate, interpret, and provide suggestions and solutions. The interface becomes less of a workspace – and more of a space of negotiation.
As an architect who still drew his diploma with ink and created his Super 8 stop-motion films by hand, this moves me  – I also remember Adobe Photoshop from a time when there was only a single drawing layer. I worked with Claris CAD and Macromedia software back then. Times change, and today I use Adobe Photoshop with an unlimited number of layers and AI support, and Figma instead of MS Visio or Claris CAD  –  it affects and touches me both positively and negatively, because I see both sides of the balance. I liked and still like it, but it also makes me afraid and concerned. Despite all the excitement about what is now possible and how quickly things are becoming even faster, we are not only taking work away from young creatives – that is happening in any case – but also taking away opportunities to learn. Learning curves may disappear, and with them an important part of personal development.

Adobe and Figma: Two Interpretations of the Same Shift

Interestingly, both Adobe and Figma are responding to the same fundamental change – but from different starting points.
Adobe’s direction is increasingly clearly, if I read the news and the change correctly ...
it wants to become the infrastructure layer of AI-driven content creation. Photoshop, Illustrator, and Premiere are no longer just applications. They are becoming modules in a larger system powered by generative AI (Firefly and beyond), where:

• images, video, and audio are generated and edited through intent
• workflows are orchestrated by AI agents
• tools execute, but no longer lead the process

Adobe’s ambition is not just to add AI features – but to become the operating system for creative production itself.
Figma, on the other hand, is evolving within a different space – product and interface design. Its trajectory points toward a system where:

• UI structures can be generated from prompts
• design systems evolve dynamically
• prototyping becomes near-instant and iterative

But the focus remains narrower and more defined:
not content creation in general – but digital product creation.
Figma is not trying to become everything. It is trying to become the AI-native environment for building interfaces and product experiences.
Both companies move toward AI-first creation – but their domains diverge:

• Adobe = Content Creation (image, video, audio, media production)
• Figma = Product/UI Creation  (interfaces, systems, digital experiences)

One shapes what we see. The other shapes how we interact with what we see.

BUT  – What Happens to Design Work?

This shift inevitably raises a question that affects almost every designer: What happens to our roles  – Not in a distant future – but already in motion. Roles likely to decrease or transform

• Pure production roles (pixel-level execution, repetitive layout work)
• Asset creation at scale (icons, variations, basic visuals)
• Routine prototyping and manual wireframing
• High-volume UI iteration work

These tasks do not disappear entirely – but they become increasingly automated or AI-assisted. Roles likely to grow in importance at the same time, new layers or let me call it parts, elements and flavors of responsibility emerge:

• Creative Direction
  Defining intent, tone, and constraints for AI systems
• Design Thinking  or let me call it System Thinking
  Designing not screens, but adaptive structures and rules
• Experience Strategy
  Connecting product, behavior, and meaning across systems
• AI Interaction Design  (Here I see a high need and an urgent need for action here) 
  Shaping how humans collaborate with generative systems
• Ethical & Responsible Design (Here, my heart and soul as an experienced designer come alive)
  Deciding what should be generated – and what should not – and where the human element belongs: that specific quality that makes things feel human, the joy of doing, of making, the joy of use. 

All in all , looking at these points ... In other words: less “making things”, more “deciding systems” and not losing the human being.

A Quiet and Quick Fundamental Shift

If we zoom out, the direction becomes clear: We are moving from software as a toolset to software as a creative partner ... And eventually – to software as an autonomous agent system. This is not just a productivity upgrade. It changes the structure of creative work itself.

What Remains Human? ... My Closing Thoughts

We are no longer just learning how to use tools. We are learning how to collaborate with systems that increasingly generate those tools for us. Design is shifting away from craftsmanship as manual execution and toward orchestration of intelligent systems.

In this new landscape, design is less about producing outcomes directly and more about shaping the conditions under which outcomes emerge.

Perhaps the real challenge is not to design faster or to produce more – but to remain aware, more aware, and acting with clear intent in systems that never stop generating. To preserve judgment, taste, and responsibility in environments optimized for endless creation. And to stay human in a world where creation itself becomes continuous, automated, and increasingly autonomous.