When and How to Use AI in the Design Process? Implications for Human-AI Design Collaboration

As the potential for human-AI design collaboration increases, understanding the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in the design process becomes more important. How does AI currently support the design process and how could it do so in the future? To answer this question, we categorized existing AI design support systems (DSS) according to the Double-Diamond design process model, and found that they are mostly used in the later stages of the design process, focusing on generating design solutions. In contrast, very few systems focus on the early stages of the process, which include discovering and defining design problems. To explore this finding's alignment with designers' expectations in real-world design, we present a case study involving emerging AI technologies such as ChatGPT and robots. This study proposes that AI agents can potentially assist designers by providing inspirations, defining design problems with constraints, offering grounded metaphors, and exploring design materials.