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04/02/2025

DBA Members’ Forum | February Summary

By Design Business Association

In February’s DBA Members’ Forum we explored the growing impact of AI on the design industry and how we’re using it to reshape the way we work. Note: it shouldn’t be shaping us! Here’s a summary of the conversation.

AI in productivity and practice 

  • One thing AI can immediately support with is productivity: Fathom and Otter AI were mentioned as note takers that can not only summarise actions points but also enable people to re-watch meetings. Other tools mentioned included Motion (for planning and productivity), Perplexity (for research), Claude AI (for brainstorming).
  • Agentic AI was highlighted as an emerging area of AI development to keep an eye on. 
  • One member shared their 5 laws of AI and reinforced that human creativity remains central – AI can be the ‘filling in the sandwich’. 
  • Another member described how they have integrated an AI brand manager into their internal Slack channels, demonstrating innovative ways of working with AI.
  • If you’re looking for specific training in this area for your team, there are of course a multitude of options but Seedily, Pratt and Spark were recommended on the call. And a great point was made about training for all – try and build a studio-wide enthusiasm for this and how it could help in all roles – even the sceptics were enthused at one member agency.

Legal and IP considerations

  • The IPO has a consultation open until 25 Feb on copyright and AI – do take part, it’s an important consideration for our industry. We at the DBA will talk to Anti Copying in Design (ACID) about a joint response.
  • If you’re concerned about your work being used to train AI without explicit consent, ACID has published an open letter with recommendations. Contact Laura for further details on ACID’s work in this space, and to contribute your thinking.
  • From a legal perspective, consider updating your T&C’s, Privacy Policy and internal policy as a triple lock.
  • If there is collaboration between employers and employees in designing and building AI systems, ownership and IP rights of such systems should be set out clearly in the employment contract. Perhaps it’s time to review some areas of HR.

Finally, if you’re wondering whether AI is going to take our jobs? Remember what designers can do that others can’t – watch this webinar with Kevin McCullagh from last year.  

Coming up

There was much, much more covered in the hour. Our next meeting will be on Monday 3 March, 4-5pm GMT when we’ll be joined by Alex Soojung-Kim Pang, author of ‘Work Less Do More: Designing the Four Day Week’ to challenge the ways that we think about productivity.