{"type":"rich","version":"1.0","provider_name":"Transistor","provider_url":"https://transistor.fm","author_name":"The Question: Design System Collaborative Learning","title":"Episode 073 Deep Dive: Design System AI Automation with Ben Callahan and Davy Fung","html":"<iframe width=\"100%\" height=\"180\" frameborder=\"no\" scrolling=\"no\" seamless src=\"https://share.transistor.fm/e/b2370218\"></iframe>","width":"100%","height":180,"duration":3023,"description":"Episode 073 Deep Dive: Design System AI Automation with Ben Callahan and Davy Fung\nHost 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.\nThe 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.\nThe 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.\nShow Notes\n00:00 - Introduction and welcome\n00:29 - Guest background: Davy Fung on design systems at Atlassian and Meta\n01:27 - Design System Office Hours podcast approaching episode 100\n01:56 - Topic framing: AI as automation in design systems\n02:22 - Survey overview: the four questions asked\n03:14 - Survey stats: 1,077 sent, 101 responses\n03:44 - Framing quote from Greg: craft-driven practitioners as guardrail-keepers\n04:37 - Q1 & Q2 findings: could vs. should be automated\n04:59 - Davy's reaction: Zero Height report showed 60% not using token automation\n05:28 - Ben's take: design systems are ripe for automation by definition\n09:46 - Low-level manual work as craft: some practitioners prefer curation over automation\n10:17 - Community opens up: automation as habit vs. automation as know-how\n13:00 - The \"could vs. should\" gap: more caution than capability suggests\n17:00 - Davy's workflow:...","thumbnail_url":"https://img.transistorcdn.com/8ZoZhDyVederAFF-YGuNFdyaUvqzao3a6rYS6VFp3F4/rs:fill:0:0:1/w:400/h:400/q:60/mb:500000/aHR0cHM6Ly9pbWct/dXBsb2FkLXByb2R1/Y3Rpb24udHJhbnNp/c3Rvci5mbS9kMjQ2/MjJjYzdiYmY4MWU0/NGQzMjJmOGUyNzlj/YmMwZS5wbmc.webp","thumbnail_width":300,"thumbnail_height":300}