The options got cheap. Choosing didn’t.

The options got cheap. Choosing didn’t.

In 1917 Marcel Duchamp sent a shop-bought urinal to an art show and signed it R. Mutt. When it wasn’t shown, The Blind Man, the little magazine he ran with friends, defended it. The case came down to three words: “He CHOSE it.”

The making didn’t matter. The choosing did. By that logic AI may be the ultimate readymade: it makes, and you choose.

The making is close to free now. In September 2025 Adobe reported 29 billion generations from its AI tools. A floor plan, a moodboard, a fixture elevation: minutes, not weeks.

Figma asked 2,500 people who build products what changed. 78% say AI makes their work significantly more efficient. Only 32% say they can rely on what it makes. 54% of designers say it improves the quality of their work, against 67% of developers. And 52% of the people building AI products say design matters more for them, not less.

That gap is the job. When anyone can make fifty store plans before lunch, the value moves to whoever knows which one to build, why, and how it will hold up on a packed Saturday when half the sizes are gone.

Taste was always the expensive part of a store. It used to hide inside the drawing hours.

Where is your team spending the hours it got back? Oh, they don’t have them back yet? Let’s talk.