UX Design in the Era of Artificial Intelligence: Practitioners’ Experiences, Challenges, and Futures

The rise of artificial intelligence (AI) has brought the UX design profession to a critical juncture, introducing opportunities along with profound challenges. While AI tools are reshaping design workflows, a nuanced understanding of their impact on practitioners’ roles, identities, and practices remains under-explored. This qualitative study addresses this gap through 11 in-depth, semi-structured interviews with experienced UX professionals, collectively representing more than a century of design practice. Using reflexive thematic analysis, we identified five interconnected themes shaping designers’ experiences with AI: Shifting Professional Roles & Identities; The Impact of AI on Craft and Practice; Organizational & Process Challenges; the Affective Dimension of AI & UX; and Advocacy & Future Directions. Findings reveal that AI is not only altering UX Design processes but also amplifying pre-existing systemic dysfunctions in the UX field, reshaping professional identity, and placing significant emotional and ethical burdens on UX designers. This research offers an empirically rich, practitioner-centered understanding of the realities of designing in the AI era and underscores the need for organizations to improve conditions and processes for strategic, human-centered practice.

Shane used the findings of this work to host a workshop at “uxcon” conference in Vienna, Austria, 20205. The research continues through an ongoing ‘Pulse of UX’ research project which continues explorations into UX practitioners' experiences in this era of AI.