ai and the design process.

In June of 2023 I co-led a workshop with the brilliant Ian Campbell Cole, for the NTU Product Design Annual Industry Liaison Committee, diving into the fast-evolving world of AI Text-to-Image tools and what they might mean for the future of design. Think Midjourney, DALL·E, and all the other tools that are blurring the line between imagination and instant imagery. But this wasn’t just a show-and-tell of techy tricks. We brought together educators, designers, and industry professionals to have some big conversations about ethics, authorship, and how AI is reshaping the creative workflow. What does it mean to “design” when a machine can render your idea in seconds? Who owns the output? And what about deepfakes, algorithmic bias, and intellectual property?

The heart of the workshop focused on the early stages of product design—the messy, expressive, aesthetic bits where ideas start to take shape. We used AI as a kind of provocation, a creative partner, to open up new ways of thinking and collaborating. With our participants, this hands-on experience with the tools wasn’t about replacing designers; it was about augmenting our thinking, challenging assumptions, and testing the limits of possibility. By the end, one thing was clear: generative AI is no longer a fringe interest. It’s here, it’s powerful, and our field in Product Design needs to engage with it, critically and creatively. The feedback we received confirmed just how relevant this conversation is right now, especially for those of us balancing innovation with responsibility.