I think the direction is generating designs so quickly that the 'designer' is essentially exploring a design space manifold in realtime. You'll still need some

I think the direction is generating designs so quickly that the 'designer' is essentially exploring a design space manifold in realtime. You'll still need someone to do it, but I think designers are going to get the kind of boost in productivity that accountants got from spreadsheets. Whether that translates to fewer designers, or more and better designed things... I suspect the latter.