Two Berlin Graduates Asked 30 Design Leaders If AI Has Ended Their Industry. The Answers Were Somewhat Surprising

Back to Devoured - August 11, 2026

DEVOURED

Two Berlin Graduates Asked 30 Design Leaders If AI Has Ended Their Industry. The Answers Were Somewhat Surprising

Designers are split on whether AI is a 'black magic' tool or a 'weak intern', according to a new survey of 30 industry leaders.

What: Design graduates Max Voigt and Erik Burdach interviewed nearly 50 creative professionals for their book 'Are we cooked?!', which captures varying perspectives on the future of commercial design and automation.

Why it matters: The industry's inability to agree on a common metaphor for AI suggests that current uncertainty is rooted in fundamentally different expectations of what the technology actually does versus what design requires.

Deep dive

The book documents 30 distinct professional perspectives on AI's impact on creative work.
Contributors include established studios like Kurppa Hosk and Mutabor, as well as independent artists like Boris Eldagsen.
The methodology emphasizes a 'metaphor radar' to categorize how designers perceive AI, ranging from 'exoskeleton' to 'fast food'.
A central theme is that AI excels at 'good enough' output but fails at the human elements of design, such as client management and contextual nuance.
The project rejects the binary of 'breathless evangelism' versus 'defensive dismissal' in favor of documenting genuine industry anxiety.

Original article

Two communication design graduates interviewed nearly 50 agency leaders, artists, and AI provocateurs, then cut the results for a book titled Are we cooked?! that catalogues how differently its subjects describe AI — black magic, a weak intern, fast food, an exoskeleton.

Explore all 43 articles in today's digest