Taste Is the Last Moat

For most of my career, a big part of a designer’s value was being able to make the thing. To take an idea, shape it, and make it land. That skill still matters. But it no longer separates people in the way it used to. A prompt can now produce a hundred decent-looking options before the meeting even starts.

So the scarce skill is shifting. It is less about making more, and more about knowing what is worth keeping.

Out of a hundred options, which one is actually right? Right for the brand, right for the moment, right for the audience, right for the problem it is supposed to solve. That kind of judgment is harder than generating the options in the first place. It is taste — and taste does not come from a prompt. It comes from years of looking, making, failing, noticing, and learning why something works.

Taste is also what keeps you honest. A beautiful option is not always the right one. AI is very good at producing things that look finished. Sometimes too finished. The danger is that polish can make weak thinking feel convincing. So the ability to look past the surface and ask, “Does this actually solve the problem?” matters more than ever.

I don’t think AI is coming for taste. I think it is making taste more valuable.

When producing options becomes cheap, the real value moves to discernment. The brands that will stand out will not be the ones generating the most. They will be the ones with someone in the room who can look at the work, understand the business, read the culture, and say with confidence: this is the one.

Taste is the last moat. I’d spend a career deepening it.