Junior Designers, AI Is Not the Enemy (But Here's What You Actually Need to Know)

The question of what skills junior designers need in the age of AI is one that keeps coming up, and for good reason. There's a lot of noise out there, ranging from "AI will take your job" to "just prompt your way to success." The truth, as usual, sits somewhere more nuanced, and more hopeful.

This question was answered by Tarra van Amerongen, Head of Design at Atlassian and innovation design lecturer at UTS, and Ash King, psychologist and cyberpsychology researcher at the University of Sydney, in conversation with host Andy on Never Not Creative's "Asking For A Friend" series. Both bring a rare combination of industry depth and human insight to a topic that deserves exactly that.

The Floor Has Risen, and That's a Good Thing

Tarra's take is refreshingly practical. AI has essentially raised the starting point for everyone. Rather than replacing junior designers, it gives them a leg up, a body of existing knowledge to build from, so they can move faster and go further from day one.

As Tarra puts it: "Your starting point is much, much further." The analogy she uses is a simple one: we no longer memorise phone numbers because technology handles that. That frees up mental space for things that actually matter.

Don't Skip the Fundamentals

Here's where both speakers push back on a common misconception. Some voices in the industry suggest that theory is no longer necessary. Tarra disagrees firmly.

"You need to understand how something works in order to have an opinion on it," she says. "Don't cheat yourself and skip all the steps."

Andy echoes this with a reference to a previous guest, Simon Lee from Enigma, who made the same point: you have to know the rules before you can break them. If you want to create something that looks like it was shot on film, you need to understand how film actually works. The same logic applies to design principles in an AI-assisted workflow.

The Fear Is Real, and It Makes Sense

Ash brings the psychological lens, and it's a valuable one. She acknowledges that fear around AI is genuine, particularly for creative workers who are watching what AI can already do and wondering how far it will go.

"I absolutely empathise with the fear, and the very real fear that maybe my job won't exist," she says.

One pattern she sees often is creative people locking themselves into a single identity: "I am a designer. I am a visual artist." Her advice is to loosen that grip. Follow your curiosity. Expand your sense of who you are and what you're capable of. Ash herself is a good example: fifteen years ago she was singing Cold Chisel covers on pub stages. She never imagined she'd become a psychologist.

Leaning In Reduces Anxiety

Andy shares findings from Never Not Creative's own research into AI, and the results are telling. People who had actually started using AI tools reported more confidence and more positive associations. Those who avoided it, or actively resisted it, showed stronger correlations with anxiety and burnout.

The message is clear: avoidance makes it worse. Engagement makes it better.

Tarra shares her own experience of this. Even as a design leader who isn't always on the tools, she opened Replit, redesigned an app as a provocation, and came away feeling far more confident. She now deliberately builds in time for her team to tinker and play, removing the pressure so people can ease into it.

"This is the worst it's ever going to be," she says. "So keep going back at it."

Practical, Everyday Uses

Both speakers share small, personal examples of AI in action. Andy has been using it to write tactical instructions for his football team. Ash uses it to give her a daily poetry prompt, one new challenge every morning to keep her creative practice alive.

These aren't grand, transformative use cases. They're small, low-stakes experiments that build familiarity and confidence over time.

The Skills That Will Always Matter

So what are the evergreen skills? Tarra sums it up well: understanding a problem, deciding what to do, and knowing what good looks like. Those things still have to get done. AI doesn't replace that judgement. It just means the tools available to execute on that judgement are more powerful than ever.

The age of AI doesn't have to be a source of dread for junior designers. It can be an invitation to go deeper into the craft, expand your identity, and start experimenting without the pressure of getting it perfect. The designers who will thrive are the ones who stay curious, keep learning the fundamentals, and aren't afraid to play.

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