What to Automate and What to Own : The Big Question: What Should Be Automated—and What Shouldn’t?

There was a time when having 80 meticulously crafted UI components was a badge of honor.

Design systems like Material Design, Carbon, and Polaris were treated as products in their own right—pillars of consistency and scalability.

But in 2025, design teams are beginning to ask different questions:

“Is our system too heavy?”
“Do I really need to submit a PR just to update a button?”
“Why is changing a card variant harder than designing a new one from scratch?”

Enter the rise of Generative UI—where a single prompt can create entire screens, and UI adapts to user behavior automatically, guided by AI.

When Design Systems Get Too Mature (and Too Much)

Design systems offer undeniable value:

• - Reusability boosts dev efficiency

• - Consistency builds user trust

• - Shared libraries streamline collaboration

But over time, they tend to bloat:

• - Obsolete components pile up

• - One-off cases lead to endless exceptions

• - New designers spend days just onboarding to the system

Eventually, you find yourself managing the system more than designing with it.

That’s when the value starts to decay.

Generative UI Is Asking a New Kind of Question

Generative UI doesn’t just help you use components—it generates them.

Example Workflow:

You describe a feature.
AI instantly produces cards, buttons, modals—styled, structured, and even responsive.

Tools leading this shift:

• - Galileo AI: Generate full UI screens via prompt

• - Locofy / Anima: Turn Figma designs into production-ready code

• - Figma AI: Auto-suggest layouts, components, and hierarchy

• - Vercel AI SDK: Adjusts UI based on real-time user behavior

In this model, designers move from creators to curators—or more precisely, prompt directors.

Design Systems vs. Generative UI: A Side-by-Side

Design systems are based on predefined rules.
Generative UI is based on real-time context.

One thrives on sustainability. The other on adaptability.

So… What Should Designers Automate?

Here’s a helpful split:

✅ Great for Automation:

• Repetitive layouts (cards, banners, modals)

• Predictable flows (onboarding → login → home)

• Low-stakes elements (icons, placeholder text)

❌ Needs Human Touch:

• Interactions involving emotion or delight

• Brand tone, color identity, visual storytelling

• Any element tied to the core product value

Let AI structure the space—then you add the meaning.

The Future: Hybrid Design Systems

Design systems aren’t going away. But they are getting smaller and smarter.

A likely future setup:

2. - Lean Component Library:
   Just the essentials—buttons, inputs, cards.
   Everything else is generated.

4. - Style Tokens in Figma:
   Color, type, spacing = managed through variables.

6. - Prompt-Centered Workflows:
   Designers create prompts, not pixel maps.

8. - AI-first Drafting, Human QA:
   AI produces the first version.
   Designers layer in brand, accessibility, tone.

Real Example: From System-Heavy to Generative-First

Before:

• 80+ components across Figma + Storybook

• Design-dev handoff bloated and slow

• 1 designer + 2 devs spent more time maintaining than building

After:

Result:
A more nimble system that prioritizes speed without sacrificing brand or UX quality.

Final Thoughts: Systems Aren’t Dead—They’re Changing Shape

Generative UI isn’t killing the design system.
It’s revealing what systems were always meant to be:

A foundation—not a fortress.

Tomorrow’s design systems won’t be hundreds of components and a 100-page PDF.

They’ll be:

• - Prompt-pattern libraries

• - Meta-rules for AI UI generation

• - Context-aware, user-driven layouts

We’re moving from defining the design to directing the experience.

As long as designers stay in the loop—not just to decorate, but to decide—we’ll be just fine.