Does craft still matter?
For designers, this isn’t a new question. We asked it when design moved from print to digital, from pixels to systems, and again from interfaces to services. Now, with tools like ChatGPT and Midjourney, the question surfaces again: If a machine can do this, what’s left for us?
But speed and automation have never killed craft. They shift it.
This moment feels fundamentally different from previous transitions. It’s not just about new tools—it’s challenging our entire approach to strategic design. At DesignMap, our vision has always been about empowering teams with design thinking, shaping strategies, and igniting meaningful questions. With AI, we saw an opportunity to make these strategic practices more accessible—especially to organizations that might otherwise see them as a luxury they can’t afford.
What Is FutureCast?
This reflection grew alongside building FutureCast—a lightweight, AI-assisted tool we developed at DesignMap to help teams explore strategic scenarios. It’s not meant to replace the deep work of a scenario planning workshop, but rather to offer an approachable entry point. Users answer a few simple questions, and FutureCast uses AI to generate thought-provoking scenarios that spark meaningful conversation.
The project was both an experiment—and a personal turning point.
A Designer’s Responsibility to Evolve
I can already hear some of my fellow design leaders: “This is just jumping on the AI bandwagon.” “You're diluting the value of strategic design.” I get it. My education at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) drilled into me that craft was sacred. We weren’t even allowed to touch a computer until our third year. We set type by hand. We painted letters with gouache. I didn’t always see the point back then—but those exercises shaped the way I work and think to this day.
I've spent my career building a practice rooted in deep thinking, collaborative facilitation, and human-centered methods. So let me be clear: FutureCast isn’t about replacing thoughtful strategy with AI gimmicks. It’s about exploring how new tools can expand access to strategic design—and what that means for our craft.
Design has always evolved with technology. From print to digital. From waterfall to agile. From desktop to mobile. Each shift challenged us to rethink our methods while holding onto our core values. The AI transition will be no different—except in its speed and scope.
What concerns me most isn’t experimenting with AI. It’s leaving AI-powered design to be defined by people who don’t share our values. If experienced designers don’t engage critically, who will ensure these tools are used responsibly?
That’s why FutureCast is transparent about what it is and what it isn’t. It doesn’t replace workshops or deep engagements. It’s a conversation starter, an entry point, and a way to bring strategic thinking to teams that might otherwise skip it. If it helps more people see the value of that work, it’s doing its job.
A Human-AI Collaboration
FutureCast is also an example of the kind of human-AI partnership we believe in. While AI generated the content, it was Vivian Lee’s exceptional design work that transformed those raw outputs into something compelling and polished. Her mastery of visual storytelling, information hierarchy, and strategic framing couldn’t have come from AI. It was her craft, judgment, and eye that elevated the work.
This is the future we see: AI accelerates the starting point, and designers use their expertise to shape the end result. Neither can do it alone.
The Messy Middle of Making
I'll be honest—building FutureCast wasn’t always graceful. My background is in graphic and product design, not AI development. I pieced this together using no-code tools and AI helpers, sometimes with literal trial and error. The result is held together with “bubble gum and duct tape”—but it works. And if enough people find it valuable, I can imagine investing in a more polished version with real-time collaboration and integrated chat.
In the process, I learned more than I expected—how to parse JSON, generate and store images, and write better prompts that reflect user input. It’s been a crash course in new technical skills that expand what I can do as a designer.
What AI Still Can’t Do
AI hasn’t changed one core principle of design: the diverge-converge process. In fact, it makes it more important. It’s easy to accept the first decent output, but that shortcut skips the critical exploration that defines good design.
Prompting is just the start. We need to develop a critical eye, resist complacency, and define what craft means in this new context. Each of us must establish a personal code for working with AI responsibly and intentionally.
Ethics, Transparency, and Value
Trust became a central concern while developing FutureCast. In our consulting work, we’re developing internal policies—nothing goes to a client without human review. With FutureCast, there’s no review before delivery, so we’re clear about what it is: a provocation, not a promise. A starting point, not a finished product.
Some might worry that tools like this devalue what consultants do. But my hope is the opposite—that it opens the door for more people to see the value of facilitated, human-led strategy work. You get what you pay for—but sometimes you need a taste before you commit.
Surprises and Reconnection
What surprised me most? The hard stuff wasn’t the conceptual heavy lifting—it was the formatting. Getting a bulleted list to display correctly took more time than generating a coherent narrative. That mismatch between what AI finds easy and what it finds hard is something we’ll all need to navigate.
But more than anything, this project reconnected me to something I hadn’t felt in a long time. These days, my role is mostly about business development and operations. Building FutureCast brought me back to the hands-on creative flow that made me fall in love with design in the first place. I worked nights and weekends not because I had to—but because I couldn’t wait to keep going.
Looking Ahead
I’m excited by the potential to reimagine how we deliver value. What other strategic methodologies could we reshape through AI? Could DesignMap one day have both a consulting practice and a product studio?
As design leaders, our job isn’t just to defend the past. It’s to help shape what comes next. That means experimenting. Being transparent. Inviting critique. All things good designers already know how to do.
FutureCast is one small experiment—but I hope it sparks more. I welcome your feedback, your skepticism, and most of all, your participation in shaping what responsible, human-centered AI design can look like.
