The 2026 AI Design Field Report (tools, process, and what's working)

There's been a heck of a debate around the future of coding and design tools lately... but how are today’s top teams actually using AI? Well, Stephen Haney (founder of the new design tool Paper) spent the last few months talking with teams like Shopify, Notion, etc. to find out. He turned it into a bit of an AI Design Field Report and there are a lot of interesting nuggets in there. So in today’s episode he walks us through some of his key findings and how that's shaping his product strategy for Paper. Some highlights: - How AI adoption looks at startups vs.

big companies - Which AI tools are the most popular in today’s top teams - Which Twitter trends you can safely ignore as a designer - What Stephen thinks about the great Ryo vs. Karri debate - The localhost sharing problem and how teams are solving it - Where Stephen thinks the future of design tools is headed next + a lot more SHOW NOTES: Basecamp’s “Shape Up” project management philosophy com/shapeup) Dive is where the best designers never stop learning 🤿 🌐 club 🐦 com/joindiveclub Now you can join advanced courses taught by the top designers to help you take a huge leap forward in your career 💪 Chapters 0:00 Intro 1:02 The new version of "should designers code?"

3:36 Stephen's continuum for building products 11:56 What Stephen has learned researching today's top design teams 15:10 Claude Code/Cursor vs. AI prototyping tools 18:05 An example of designers shipping at startups 19:51 The new Localhost problem 24:26 Is AI prototyping actually faster? 27:30 The network effects of AI 30:53 How Paper's product strategy has evolved 37:53 The changing role of design tools as the source of truth 39:25 Paper's Tailwind partnership 41:54 Stephen's advice to designers