The 85% Trap: Why Design Students Are Scared of the AI Future
Jan 1, 2026
4 min read
A Case Study On Responsibly Using AI
Imagine spending weeks on a capstone project, only to fail because an algorithm decided you were “too efficient.” This is the reality for design students today, and why we need to change the syllabus.
Imagine it’s 2:00 AM. A student sits in the library, staring at a blank Canvas submission page.
They have finished their UX research. They have drafted the personas. But now, they are frozen. They want to use ChatGPT to help refine the grammar in their case study or use Midjourney to generate a mood board for their visual identity.
But they don’t. They are paralyzed by a number: 85%
