Most AI products lack a defined quality bar — a problem the Designer Fund's 2026 AI in Design report exposes through data on inconsistent output, reduced team collaboration, and unclear ownership. Speed and AI-generated visual polish mask deeper failures: products may look good while missing user intent, communicating uncertainty poorly, or behaving incorrectly in critical moments. Design teams have the methods to fix this by specifying quality criteria before building starts, but only if they're involved early enough to ask the right questions.