The tug of war between automation and human-led creative processes
Can we automate creative fields like design and coding?
The digital process automation market is estimated to rise from $6.8 billion to $12.6 billion by 2023, says ThinkAutomation. The COVID-19 pandemic is believed to contribute to the accelerated technological progress and is encouraging many companies to invest more in innovation. In August 2021, Tesla announced the prototype of Tesla Bot: a humanoid robot designed to carry out mundane and dangerous work at Tesla’s factory. Elon Musk has also frequently mentioned that automation is a way to do repetitive manual work. The tricky part is that robots sometimes struggle with tasks that typically aren’t problematic to people, such as plugging in a cable or detecting anomalies. However, the question is — can more creative fields like design or coding someday become fully automated?
Most of us designers already use some form of automation that makes our workflows more organized. With a few clicks, we can complete numerous tasks such as editing a series of photos, designing websites with no code, or prototyping using static and interactive mockups. We can also use all sorts of “magic wands,” or even auto-layout options, just like the one in Figma. With such automation tools, designers can now complete various mundane tasks faster and more efficiently.
Is it possible to completely automate the design industry?
Critical thinking
Critical thinking is the mighty advantage of a human over a computer. Computers perform tasks as we instruct them to do. However, they can’t find themselves in unfamiliar, spontaneous cases if they are not programmed to respond or if they can’t recognize a situation. Rule-based chatbots are close contenders because they are based on keywords. They always have a pool of commands or keywords that they understand, but they can easily get lost if you ask an unusual question that a human would easily understand.
Creativity
Computers can randomize designs or creative work, and many handy tools can serve as proof. Artbreeder, an AI-generated art website, mixes images that you upload online and transforms them into new forms of artwork. It is a noteworthy form of experimentation. However, your client may want to have a little more control over the progress and the final result of the artwork. That leads us to the next point.
Communication
Communication is the key when it comes to services. People love discovering the whys and hows behind an idea. They love hidden gems and the details that no computer can generate. For example, if we all used artificial intelligence for logo design, we would quickly run out of options because most of them would probably look very similar to each other. On the contrary, a logo designer considers different aspects of the brand, products, market, and client expectations to design a logo that will represent the brand for the next 10–20 years. Even if your client decides to invest in rebranding after 20 years, their new logo will somehow have to resemble the original one because they will have an already established list of clients. A completely different logo would confuse everyone, and probably do more harm to the brand than good.
Empathy
UX and service design involve many more aspects that we can’t replace with AI, and empathy is one of them. A computer is not your customer; if it can produce any form of creative outcomes, such as a logo or icon on a screen, it doesn’t necessarily mean that customers will understand the concept or the meaning of that logo or icon. A computer will also not be able to understand business goals and address them while creating solutions. A computer will probably not be able to conduct interviews and delve deeper into the human needs of your customers either. No matter what, empathy is a human feature, and we can’t replace it that easily with algorithms.
Final thoughts
While some tools can certainly simplify our workflows, full automation and the replacement of human abilities in design is a more complex, controversial, and very distant topic. As long as you design things for human use, a computer cannot substitute your ability to solve problems critically, or empathize with your clients and users. You can use various randomizers, templates, automatically applied color schemes, and website builders; however, good design comes down to the person controlling those tools and the idea behind every decision.
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