Creating through excess: why I chose maximalism?
June 11, 2026
By Incia Khalid • May 2026
The way industrial designers work is changing, not because AI is taking their jobs, but because the most valuable parts of the job are shifting. AI tools can now generate design options and visualizations at extraordinary speed, which means that the time designers are actually spending on producing individual concepts is shrinking. Instead, the real skill is knowing which direction to take: understanding what users need, what can actually be manufactured, how a product should feel, and how it will hold up over time.
At the same time, products themselves have become more complex. It’s no longer enough to design a beautifully shaped object and call it done. Today’s products exist within ecosystems that include apps, digital services, brand experiences, and connected devices. Designers who focus only on physical form risk becoming executors of someone else’s vision. But those who understand the broader system, spanning hardware, software, branding, and user experience, are the ones shaping product strategy.
AI is accelerating this shift and as early-stage concept generation becomes faster, companies increasingly look for designers who can think in systems and orchestrate experiences across multiple touchpoints. Designers now collaborate closely with engineers, UX teams, product managers, and data specialists, translating technical possibilities into products people genuinely want to use. The ability to move fluidly between hardware, interaction design, and storytelling is becoming what separates leaders from followers.
What AI still cannot do is understand people in a meaningful way. Algorithms can generate visuals, but they cannot interpret cultural behaviour, emotional response, or the subtle ergonomic factors that shape everyday use. Designers spend years in education and practice developing the critical observation, research, and human-centred thinking skills required to understand how people actually behave, not just how they are expected to behave. Designers are becoming the bridge between what technology can produce and what humans actually need, ensuring that rapidly evolving innovations fit naturally into people’s lives rather than complicating them.
For designers entering the field today, success will not come from mastering a single narrow specialization. It will come from adaptability and multidisciplinary awareness: understanding manufacturing processes, digital ecosystems, business strategy, and collaborative innovation. Designers who can navigate across these domains will not simply survive the AI era, they will define how the next generation of products is imagined, built, and experienced.
Ultimately, the future of industrial design is not about isolated objects. It is about designing connected systems that shape how people interact with products, services, and technology in everyday life. As AI becomes unavoidable, the designers who thrive will be the ones who harness it to optimize their workflows, freeing themselves to focus on the strategic, human-centred thinking that shapes the future of products and experiences.
About Incia Khalid
Incia Khalid is a multidisciplinary industrial designer and creative director, and the founder of Humble Studio, a design and visual storytelling agency specializing in product, brand, and experience design. Through Humble Studio, she leads cross-functional teams delivering creative direction, product visualization, and design strategy for technology, lifestyle, and consumer brands across international markets. Her work focuses on human-centred design, emerging technologies, and the development of connected product ecosystems that bridge physical and digital experiences.