You should be using AI not just for writing better copy, but for thinking through what you’re even trying to say in the first place. Not just “how should I word this button?” but “why is this screen here at all?”

If you’re jumping straight into Figma and asking AI for help with some specific copy, you’re skipping the part where it helps the most. It’s like walking onto Princeton’s campus, stopping the smartest person you see, and asking, “Hey, how should this screen work?” They might give you something articulate and well written, maybe even useful. But without the full picture? It won’t be right. You just didn’t bring them in early enough.

AI is the same way. If you prompt it with “make a wireframe for this,” you’re not using it well. But if you walk it through the situation — the user, the problem, the flow, the edge cases — it becomes a killer thought partner. Not just for copy, but for flow, behavior, and even product scope.

Use it like a creative partner. Iterate. Talk to it. Rewrite. Refactor. Don’t expect a one-and-done.

Language models are really good at, well, language — so they’re surprisingly effective at helping you word things clearly and concisely in your UI. But it’s not just how to word it. It’s what to say to begin with, and how it should work. That all starts with the user journey, what happened before this screen, and why the user is here now.

If you’re serious about good UX, flip your time.

Spend 80% talking to AI about the user journey and refining ideas.

Spend 20% in Figma.

That’s how you avoid screens that look good but don’t make sense. I ask AI for text mockups first, just to get a feel for what the screen might say or do, before ever opening a design tool. Yes, I know Figma has started rolling out AI features, and they will undoubtedly get better. But they mostly help you polish what’s already on the page. What you really need is a creative partner, not a layout generator.

I was recently reminded of a quote from Steve Jobs that resonated with me: “Design is not just what it looks like and feels like. Design is how it works.” Apple’s known for its beautiful interfaces, but what made them magical was how they worked. The flow. The intuitiveness. The design decisions you didn’t even notice.

UI and UX both matter. But we should be tilting our attention toward clarity, behavior, and flow, especially as the future moves toward natural language interfaces, where we just ask the app to do what we want, and it does.

We may not be designing screens forever. But until then, let’s make them work, not just look good.