Designing Product Simplicity for the Age of Agentic AI
1. How AI blurs the boundary between design and development
Agent tools are changing the way designers and engineers build products together.
- Tools like GitHub Copilot and VS Code reduce the distance from static mockups to real code.
- Designers become more directly involved in code, and engineers also handle design intent more concretely during implementation.
- As the boundaries between roles blur, a common standard that connects the product as a whole becomes more important than individual screens.
2. Why the same component does not guarantee the same experience
Even when Fluent 2 is shared, user experiences can easily become fragmented when product-level judgments differ.
- Even when the same buttons and cards are used, if the layout and workflow differ, customers must learn a new way to use each one.
- If AI agents apply patterns without context, even small differences can spread quickly.
- Consistency is completed not by the shape of components, but by the connections between screens, the sequence of actions, and the way feedback is delivered.
3. The CoreAI design system that humans and AI read together
The CoreAI design system addresses simplicity and consistency between Microsoft Foundry and Azure developer services at the product level.
- It provides common patterns to reduce both user cognitive load and repeated work for teams.
- Rather than staying in a Figma library, it conveys pattern context, intended use, and constraints to AI agents through an MCP server.
- It provides reusable design criteria for people, and explicit rules for agents to reduce incorrect application.
4. A way of collaborating that keeps the system alive
Consistency is maintained not through one-time creation, but through an operating structure in which multiple teams continue to participate.
- A dedicated team and contributors share priorities and progress through sprints, weekly checkpoints, and GitHub boards.
- They standardize first on patterns with broad impact, such as data grids, detail pages, and creation workflows.
- They operate the design system not as a finished deliverable, but as shared infrastructure that is updated along with product changes.
