In his article, Anton Sten explains that his book "Products People Actually Want" focuses on what happens when people create products without finding out whether anyone actually needs them. When the barriers to creation are reduced to zero, the market becomes flooded with things that work but solve nonexistent problems. He adds a second aspect: AI helps you get started quickly, but it does not create something ready for widespread use. Users' expectations regarding polish and detail are higher than what AI produces on its own. Such creations can be spotted from a distance because they lack the intentional decisions that make products feel natural.
The combination of these factors is brutal: people create the wrong things and, on top of that, create them poorly. One example is a recent case in which food influencer Molly Baz discovered that Shopify was selling a website template featuring an image she called a "sick AI version of herself." The image of a woman in a red sweatshirt eating an onion ring in a butter-yellow kitchen looked almost identical to the cover of her cookbook. This is not AI's fault, but laziness enabled by AI. What used to be image theft is now disguised as "AI-generated content." The irony is that creating something original with AI tools is easier than copying someone else's work. The tools exist, and so do the capabilities; all that is missing is the intention to create something new.
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In design, AI often produces the wrong solution if designers lack deep knowledge of users' needs and real problems. AI acts as leverage: it amplifies both the strengths and weaknesses of the design process. If you have a clear understanding, sound judgment, and good taste, AI helps you iterate and refine solutions faster. Without those qualities, it merely helps you create bad things more efficiently.
How Anton Sten Actually Uses AI
Anton Sten uses AI tools extensively but thoughtfully. For example, he uses Granola (a transcription tool) to transcribe user research sessions. Visual Electric for images that cannot be found in stock photo libraries, such as families that are not white and middle-class. ChatGPT as a sparring partner and to improve his writing. Cursor to build websites and prototypes. And a custom writing agent trained on the Summer Health brand voice.
What he does not do, however, is use AI to replace thinking. He recently saw a tool that listens to user interviews and suggests follow-up questions. Things like that make designers lazier, not better. You need genuine curiosity. You must know what you are looking for before you can begin synthesizing meaningful information. AI excels at processing large amounts of data and identifying themes. But if you do not understand users and their difficulties, you cannot properly guide AI toward a real solution.
The Skills That Really Matter
For engineers, the distinction is easy to see: tools help them code faster, but that is useless if they do not understand the generated code. For designers, the key skills will be taste and curation. Distinguishing good work from generic work. Refining and iterating until it feels intentional rather than automatic.
Anton Sten believes that designers who reject AI completely will lose their jobs within five years. If AI speeds up tedious tasks, why do them manually? But those who treat AI like a magic button will also run into trouble. The successful ones will be those who use AI as leverage—to think better, work faster, and explore more possibilities than they could on their own.
AI Amplifies Everything
Anton Sten sees it this way: AI is leverage. It amplifies what you put into it. If you deeply understand users, AI helps you explore more solutions. If you have good taste, AI speeds up iteration. If you can communicate clearly, AI enhances that ability. But if you do not understand the problem you are solving, AI merely helps you build the wrong thing more efficiently. If you have poor judgment, AI will amplify that too.
The future belongs to people who combine human insight with AI capabilities. Not to those who think they can skip the human part. Anton Sten's book is not an antidote to AI. It is about developing judgment so that any tool—including AI—is used to create things people actually want. The better you understand users and the fundamentals of business, the better your work with AI will be.
AI did not create the problem of making useless products. It merely made it easier to create more of them, faster. The solution is not to avoid the tools. It is to improve the human aspects of the work that tools cannot yet perform. Yet.
Source: antonsten.com
