AI and human imagination

Artificial intelligence, AI, is increasingly having an impact on the design process, ideation included. Traditional ideation tools such as freehand sketches and sketch modelling have become integrated with computer software. As a result, technology marks a transformative shift in design practice where its integration with digital processes means machines collaborate with designers to generate data-driven ideas and solutions. Yet drawing by hand remains a tool for designers to capture and communicate ideas, as in "thinking with a pencil". Moreover, the immediacy of freehand drawing may encourage constructive in-person discussions with clients and stakeholders. Drawing also help expand designer knowledge of how things work, how things work together and helps to explore alternatives. Drawing by hand, however, is skill-based and needs practising. It is more time-consuming than software supported drawing and poses revision challenges and limited precision. But growing reliance on digital tools, AI included might reduce designers own unique style obscuring the deeply human aspects of design. And so the question remains: 'Will the rise of AI reduce designer capacity for originality and innovation, or will it serve as a catalyst for pushing the boundaries of creativity and expression?