After the prototype

Paige Costello, vice president of product at Figma, argues that AI makes prototypes quick, so the hard work moves to choosing a direction, finishing the product and making it distinctive.

Product writer Pavel Samsonov argues that AI prototypes tempt teams to skip the first step in making a product: deciding what problem it should solve.

Teresa Torres and Petra Wille argue that AI coding agents made building a feature cheaper but did not make delivering a reliable product free.

Megan Chan of Nielsen Norman Group shows designers using AI tools to test complex interfaces with users before engineers build them, and warns that a polished prototype is not finished.