Dear tech companies still hiring like it’s 2015: In an AI-powered world, everyone can look like a rockstar. So what are you really evaluating—and what actually makes a UX designer irreplaceable?
The Illusion of Perfect Answers
In the age of AI, a junior designer can generate a flawless design process in under five minutes. Case studies? Structured by ChatGPT. UI mockups? Auto-filled with components from Figma plugins. Even behavioral questions like “Tell me about a time you failed” can be answered with impressive detail — entirely fabricated, yet fully plausible.
I’ve tried it. I asked AI to write about a time I handled a conflict with engineering. It produced a diplomatic, leadership-sounding answer that frankly made me want to hire myself. Except it wasn’t me.
Here’s a quick comparison:
- AI-generated answer: “During a major redesign, engineering pushed back on a timeline I proposed. Instead of reacting emotionally, I scheduled a cross-functional sync, realigned on goals, and together we agreed on a phased rollout that met both timelines and design integrity.”
- My real answer: “We were already two weeks late. I was tired, and the engineer was frustrated. I ended up going to our PM in private, asking for help mediating. In the sync, I tried to lead, but mostly I listened and just acknowledged the tension. We didn’t agree that day — we compromised the next week. It wasn’t elegant, but it worked.”
The first answer is polished. The second is real.
Interviews Aren’t Measuring What They Used To
We’re still interviewing like it’s 2015: asking for portfolios, walking through design processes, and throwing in a few whiteboard exercises. But the tools have changed. A candidate can now assemble a polished portfolio without ever working on a messy project. They can generate stakeholder quotes, user flows, and even feedback reflections that sound deeply thoughtful.
In other words, interview performance can now be outsourced. But real design — the kind that happens in the tension between unclear goals, tech limitations, and team misalignment — can’t be faked.
Are You Hiring Prompt Pros or Problem Solvers?
Design is increasingly about knowing how to collaborate with AI. That’s not necessarily a bad thing. But it does raise the question: Are we assessing someone’s ability to design, or their ability to prompt tools that do it for them?
What happens when a senior-level candidate gives a pitch-perfect STAR-format answer about stakeholder misalignment — except it’s eerily generic? Do we praise their polish, or question their ownership?
This isn’t about gatekeeping AI. It’s about recalibrating what signals actually matter.
What Should We Be Hiring For Now?
In this new landscape, the designers who stand out won’t be the ones with the flashiest case studies or the cleanest Figma files. They’ll be the ones who thrive in real-world tension, where deadlines slip, requirements change, stakeholders disagree, and nothing goes exactly as planned.
They’re good at:
- Making decisions with incomplete or conflicting data
- Navigating ambiguity without waiting for perfect clarity
- Negotiating product direction with PMs and engineers when goals collide
- Spotting ethical blind spots AI can’t anticipate — and having the courage to speak up
These are not the kinds of skills that shine in a portfolio walkthrough or a rehearsed case study. They surface in live interactions, under pressure, in the gray areas where design is less about polish and more about principle.
But how can companies help reveal those qualities? By shifting focus from presentation to presence.
- Create space in interviews for unscripted collaboration
- Introduce scenarios with imperfect information and see how the candidate frames the problem
- Observe how they respond to vague feedback
- Ask about something that went sideways — and listen not for the outcome, but for the mindset
The best designers in the AI era won’t just be able to make beautiful things. They’ll be able to make decisions when the path isn’t clear, and make people around them feel more certain for having them in the room.
So, are we hiring a designer — or their AI co-pilot? Maybe both. But let’s make sure we know which one is actually driving.
