When vibe coding started getting popular, some people said, “we won’t need designers anymore, you can just design things yourself.” The opposite happened. I talked to a well respected designer friend today who said freelance design rates are getting more expensive, and hiring a full-time designer in the U.S. now starts at $150K. He shared a framing I liked: "Teams understand the models are going to make everyone 7/10 designers. Which does eliminate the need for low end of the market. But if you can help someone ship 9 or 10/10 design you’ve never been more valuable because it’s now one of the core means of differentiation." AI made bad design easier. It also made great design harder & more expensive.