How AI is changing Design: Why creative judgment matters more than execution

BrandDays Madrid: what we’re taking back

There are events you attend to learn, and events you attend to confirm what you already sensed. BrandDays was both at once.

This weekend at La Nave, almost every conversation — even when addressing different topics — was responding to the same underlying question: what role does design play when artificial intelligence seems to promise almost everything?

It was not just an event about brands. It was a conversation about the future of the discipline. And what interested us most was not only what was said on stage, but what it reveals about the moment we are all operating in.

AI and humanism: not a battle, a condition

If we had to summarise the event in two words they would be these: humanism and artificial intelligence. They appeared in almost every talk — sometimes in opposition, sometimes condemned to coexist.

Jacob Benbunan, founder of Saffron, said it with a line that stayed with us: “AI will make good designers better and bad designers faster.” That is the optimistic version. The unsettling part is that the second half is also true.

Lavidita raised a different question, equally good and rather less comfortable: how much life does my design have? Not whether it is beautiful or functional. Whether something human runs through it. It is the kind of question that has no answer in a prompt.

And Carmen Bustos from Soulsight was direct: “Has the though of being replaced by a machine ever come to your mind?” Almost the entire room raised their hand. Not as an affirmative answer, but as an acknowledgement that the question feels close, that it is personal. That says more than any statistic.

What became clear is that the question is no longer whether AI will become part of our processes. It already is. The question is which parts we are willing to hand over, and which we want to keep as human territory. Context, sensitivity, ethics, cultural interpretation, creativity — that remains human work. And it is, increasingly, the work that matters most.

Value is shifting from execution to strategy

There was something several speakers named from different angles that resonated strongly: if execution becomes automated, value migrates toward direction.

The founder of Erretres noted that billing by time will soon become obsolete. Clients no longer pay for effort — they pay for outcomes. That changes not just the business model of the sector, but the entire conversation about what it means to do the work well.

Lleidot framed it differently: the risk today lies in executing without thinking. When tools reduce the distance between intention and visual result, the danger is not that AI produces too much — it is that we stop asking ourselves what is worth producing.

Grávita’s founder was even more specific: not designing for everyone, but committing to a specific audience. Knowing when to say no. Making the right microdecisions that define you as a brand. That is judgment. And judgment cannot be automated.

Superstudio brought it into emotional territory: “The key is to transmit emotions — to seduce.” Beyond the tools, design still operates through perception and human response. That does not change with AI.

For us, all of this points to the same thing: the central question is no longer how do we make this? but why this and not something else?

A contradiction worth naming

There was something at the event that gave us pause, and we think it is worth saying out loud.

Many talks defended the human dimension of design with real conviction — sensitivity, intuition, culture, personal perspective. And yet, during the breaks, most people were on their phones. Little spontaneous conversation. Few exchanges beyond familiar circles.

The contradiction felt too visible to ignore.

If we defend the human as the key differentiator against AI, should we not also take better care of the spaces where that human dimension actually happens? Professional events are one of those spaces. If we turn them into something we consume individually rather than places where we build relationships, we risk giving up exactly what we claim to protect.

AI can automate many things. Building community is not one of them.

A sector that does not talk to itself becomes more isolated. At a time of deep transformation, shared spaces and informal exchange are not secondary — they are strategic.

What we are taking back to Cocota

Beyond the talks, BrandDays was also a pause for the Cocota team. A moment to step out of the daily noise, talk among ourselves, organise questions, and make space for ideas that do not always find room in the speed of everyday work.

We leave with a few convictions sharpened:

• Judgment is the new differentiator. When anyone can generate images in seconds, what distinguishes is not the ability to produce — it is knowing how to look. Knowing what works, why it works, and when something that looks good simply is not. That is built over years of practice, accumulated visual intelligence, and the willingness to keep asking uncomfortable questions.
• Strategy matters more than ever. Not as an abstract concept, but as the capacity to define direction, meaning, and coherence before execution begins. If production accelerates, thinking well becomes scarcer and more valuable.
• The way we price work needs to evolve. We cannot keep billing by the hour in a context where execution hours are compressing. The conversation about value should be more about impact and less about time.
• And one last thing, perhaps the most personal: the questions we ask ourselves at Cocota are not isolated questions. They are part of a wider conversation the whole discipline is having. That does not resolve anything, but it helps.

We left without more answers than when we arrived. But with better questions. And right now, that feels like enough.

At a time when technology accelerates almost everything, stopping to think together remains a deeply human way of moving forward. Thank you to David D’Eboli and all the team at Blanc! for putting their time, passion and energy into this project.