Chapter 9: AI and Design Collaboration: Not a Full Member (Yet)

Design consultancies rely both on individual expertise and collaborative processes to achieve innovative performance for their clients. As artificial intelligence (AI) increases in utility, these firms and others using design thinking processes are faced with how to incorporate AI into their work and how to fashion a position for AI in their workforce. Is AI best seen as a tool? An expert? A full collaborator? A competitor for jobs? This chapter outlines issues faced by the design field as AI enters its domain, including AI capabilities, needed human collaboration skills, and the way in which AI may support and potentially replace tasks and people. Drawing on a focused set of interviews with designers and their managers, we outline a case of one company grappling with the introduction of AI into their design process and products. Their challenges include understanding how AI can support design collaboration, developing the skills to leverage AI capabilities, and planning how AI use will affect their workforce roles. These findings suggest that design firms seeking to benefit from AI must mindfully define collaborative success in terms of relatively short-term outcomes such as client deliverables as well as longer-term considerations such as employee skills training, retention, and succession planning.