Episode 073 Deep Dive: Design System AI Automation with Ben Callahan and Davy Fung

Episode 073 Deep Dive: Design System AI Automation with Ben Callahan and Davy FungHost Ben Callahan is joined by co-host Davy Fung, a product designer on the Atlassian Design System (previously Meta) and host of the Design System Office Hours podcast, to explore AI as automation in design systems—what could be automated, what should be automated, where practitioners draw the line, and what "craft" still means in 2026.The survey was sent to 1,077 design system practitioners and received 101 responses across four questions: what percentage of your workflow could be automated with AI today; what percentage should be automated; in what areas should we avoid AI automation and why; and what does craft mean to you in a 2026 design systems context.The conversation covers the surprising gap between "could" and "should," the risk of using AI to automate broken processes without questioning them first, the tension between deterministic tasks and those requiring human judgment, and how community remains the best antidote to feeling overwhelmed by an ever-accelerating tooling landscape.Show Notes00:00 - Introduction and welcome00:29 - Guest background: Davy Fung on design systems at Atlassian and Meta01:27 - Design System Office Hours podcast approaching episode 10001:56 - Topic framing: AI as automation in design systems02:22 - Survey overview: the four questions asked03:14 - Survey stats: 1,077 sent, 101 responses03:44 - Framing quote from Greg: craft-driven practitioners as guardrail-keepers04:37 - Q1 & Q2 findings: could vs. should be automated04:59 - Davy's reaction: Zero Height report showed 60% not using token automation05:28 - Ben's take: design systems are ripe for automation by definition09:46 - Low-level manual work as craft: some practitioners prefer curation over automation10:17 - Community opens up: automation as habit vs. automation as know-how13:00 - The "could vs. should" gap: more caution than capability suggests17:00 - Davy's workflow: starting ~60–70% of work with AI or automation support23:34 - Bill's 0%/0% answer: automation exposes flawed processes AI won't question25:27 - Key insight: automating a hard process can mask that the process itself is wrong26:33 - Stephen's framework: black-and-white tasks vs. tasks needing intelligent reasoning28:01 - Practical example: using AI to write consumer-friendly token changelog messages29:57 - Connection to Episode 072: extreme support and openness to direct conversation30:12 - Lauren: AI used to train teams on new tools, preserving human knowledge transfer33:00 - Q3: areas to avoid AI automation — relationships, decision-making, creative direction36:15 - The "CEO said something" problem: top-down AI mandates without practical grounding36:43 - Skills vs. MCP: a lively side thread from the community38:00 - Craft in 2026: intentionality, systems thinking, and human judgment43:00 - The V0/AI coding tool support burden falling unexpectedly on design system teams45:02 - Community as the antidote to feeling overwhelmed by tooling change45:31 - Doug's question: how to expose design documentation to AI via MCP46:29 - Davy's answer: Atlassian's JSON-structured content powering their ADS MCP47:28 - Closing reflections; encouragement to dig into Q4 raw answers on craft47:55 - Community updates: Redwoods writing accountability group, Guy's "Cost of Yes" article48:51 - Upcoming events: Zeroheight Converge in Newcastle (October), UX London (June, code: JOIN_BC for 20% off)49:25 - OutroWhere to Find the HostsBen Callahan is Founder of Sparkbox (https://sparkbox.com) and Redwoods Design System Community (https://bencallahan.com/redwoods). Read his writings, have him present at your event, or engage with him as a coach or consultant at https://bencallahan.comDavy Fung is a Product Designer on the Atlassian Design System and host of the Design System Office Hours podcast (https://bit.ly/3AQYjjI). Connect with him on LinkedIn (https://bit.ly/3XrcF2W).Get the Raw DataAccess the complete survey data from Episode 073 to conduct your own analysis: https://bit.ly/4cIjAv8Review the FigJam NotesDig into the collaborative notes we took as a community during the deep dive: https://bit.ly/4tW5ZHAJoin the ConversationThe Question explores design systems topics through community research and deep-dive discussions. Participate in future episodes and contribute to the next survey: https://bit.ly/answerTheQuestion