AI Is Not a Wildcard

As interest in AI grows among design students, we’ve observed a tendency to treat AI as a „wildcard“—a placeholder for imagined functionality without a clear understanding of its real capabilities or constraints. This points to a broader challenge: while design education must prepare students to engage meaningfully with AI, doing so requires both technical insight and pedagogical adaptation, placing new demands on educators. In our paper „AI is not a Wildcard: Challenges in Integrating AI into the Design Curriculum“ (EduCHI ’23), we shared and discussed our thoughts and first experiences on integrating AI in the design curriculum.

Designers are well-positioned to shape human-centered applications of AI, yet they often lack the technical grounding needed for responsible and feasible implementation. Current educational resources rarely bridge this gap.

Our goal is to foster AI intuition—a practical, critical understanding of how AI works and what it can (and cannot) do. Students should be able to evaluate feasibility, anticipate ethical implications, prototype using accessible tools, and communicate AI’s potential and risks with clarity. Rather than using AI as a speculative shortcut, they must learn to apply it intentionally, creatively, and responsibly.

However, we found that AI-related content is often isolated in separate course formats, with little integration into studio or project-based learning. Without continuity or informed guidance, students struggle to apply AI meaningfully in their work.

At the University of Design Schwäbisch Gmünd, we are piloting the AI+Design Lab as a specialized space to address this challenge. The lab offers entry-level formats to build AI intuition, closely integrated with studio and project-based teaching. It supports students with technical guidance and serves as a resource for educators to explore and discuss AI technologies. With our paper, we aim to encourage further research and dialogue on integrating AI into design education.

For more details, please read the full paper.