Design in the Age of AI Agents 😎 + 🤖
Originally published in the Design Shift newsletter on AI and design leadership, this article explores how design leadership is evolving from craft to curation in the age of artificial intelligence.
How top design leaders are using Jobs to Be Done and AI to redefine the designer’s role—from makers to strategic movers.
Design Deep Design
Why Designers Must Lead, Not Just Create — and How AI + Jobs to Be Done Can Show the Way
What does it mean to be a designer when AI can write, generate, and even prototype at the click of a button? The answer, according to Elizabeth and Mario, isn’t to compete with the machines, but to lead them.
In this issue of Design Shift, we explored how AI is transforming design, what skills today’s professionals need to thrive, and how frameworks like Jobs to Be Done (JTBD) can give designers a strategic edge in an AI-first world.
Here’s what I learned while speaking with Elizabeth and Mario…
Designers Must Lead, Not Just Create
As AI continues to automate production tasks, the value of designers is shifting upstream — toward strategy, systems thinking, and critical decision-making. For Elizabeth and Mario, this transition started long before the rise of generative AI, during their time building Salesforce’s internal innovation team, Ignite.
“The team was dedicated — not just handoffs,” Elizabeth explained. “Designers were the advocates for the solution. Strategists were the advocates for the business. And researchers were the advocates for the user. All three disciplines had equal weight.”
This holistic, cross-functional approach allowed them to work at the intersection of customer need, business value, and technological possibility — a space designers are uniquely qualified to navigate. And…in today’s AI-driven world, that strategic positioning is more essential than ever.
Mario added, “We’ve always shared this idea of moving design as far upstream as possible. This gives designers a way to ask: where and why are we applying AI? What outcomes do we expect?”
Rather than being told to implement AI solutions, designers can shape how and why they’re deployed. That requires not only design skills but also business acumen, systems-level thinking, and a comfort with ambiguity.
JTBD Is a Powerful Framework for AI Integration
After leaving Salesforce, Elizabeth and Mario began exploring how the JTBD framework could help organizations design and prioritize AI-powered agents. Their insight: AI is great at completing narrow tasks — if you know exactly what you want it to do.
“Jobs to Be Done gives us a shared language to define those tasks,” Mario explained. “It helps us understand the full customer lifecycle and where agents can plug in — from marketing all the way to service.”
Elizabeth expanded on this point: “Companies are always saying, ‘We want to use AI for product development.’ But that’s way too broad. When you use a job map, you can be surgical. Maybe you build an agent just to generate campaign ideas — one small job. That’s lower risk and easier to test.”
Their workshop, which combines JTBD mapping with AI agent prototyping, helps teams identify specific opportunities for automation based on real human needs. The result is a more thoughtful, human-centered approach to AI — one that avoids hype and focuses on measurable value.
This also reframes AI from a threat into a tool that empowers designers. “You’re hiring an agent to do a job,” Elizabeth said. “But the job performer is still human. You’re augmenting them, not replacing them.”
The Future Belongs to the Adaptive
Both Elizabeth and Mario emphasized that staying relevant in a fast-moving world requires constant experimentation, not perfection. Designers who wait to master AI before using it will be left behind. Those who learn by doing, teaching, and adapting will thrive.
“We always had a test-and-shape mentality at Ignite,” Elizabeth said. “Don’t just talk about it — try it. Teach a workshop. Prototype something. Get it into people’s hands.”
She recounted how she now uses AI to rapidly prototype curriculum. “I mapped out a class in Miro, then asked GenAI to redo it using different design methods — double diamond, IDEO’s kit, John Kolko’s approach. I got three different versions and compared them. Some were great. Some were overstuffed burritos.”
The key, she said, is critical thinking. AI can generate — but it can’t evaluate. That’s the designer’s job.
Mario reinforced the value of experimentation, especially for career growth: “You don’t need to know where it’s going. I talked to a friend who left a CTO role and is building a product with another engineer. He said, ‘Even if this fails, I’ll be a better leader because I understand the tools.’”
They also recommended surrounding yourself with diverse perspectives — from technologists to venture capitalists to fellow designers. Read, listen, build, and share. The world is changing fast, but if you stay curious and adaptable, you’ll be ready.
