Designing with AI Assistants: A UX Playbook from a Seed-Stage Fintech

AI · 6 min read

Vaultly, a seed-stage fintech, piloted a design assistant that suggested UI text, created component variations, and offered micro-interaction ideas. Early benefits included faster copy iterations and reduced cognitive overhead for junior designers, but governance and compliance raised red flags: suggested copy sometimes implied product capabilities not yet available, and generated states neglected regulatory disclaimers.

Vaultly created a playbook: constrain AI outputs to approved lexicons, add a compliance validation step before any generated UI reaches product reviews, and require designers to tag any AI-generated asset in the repository. The assistant was connected to the design system so it could only propose components from the verified library, and an approval workflow in Figma invited legal and risk review for externally facing flows.

After instituting these guardrails, Vaultly reported a 2x increase in prototype throughput and a 60% reduction in design-review cycles caused by ambiguous copy. The team stresses that AI in product design is at its best when used to augment pattern reuse and reduce tedium, but human oversight is non-negotiable for regulated products.