Placeholder text. The final essay is still being written.

I stood up a design engineering team because there was a gap between how things were designed and how they were built. Someone had to live in that gap.

AI is closing it from both sides. Designers can now produce working code. Engineers can now explore design directions in minutes.

The skill survives. The team may not.

Design engineering as a skill matters more than ever. As a separate team, I think it is the first function to dissolve into everyone else.

The best thing a bridge team can do is make itself unnecessary.

What leaders should do now

Spread the skill deliberately before the org chart does it for you: pair design engineers with product teams, and make code literacy part of every designer's growth.