Introducing Our New Course: AI & Design Systems
Over the last couple of years, we’ve seen AI shift from “interesting novelty” to “major force that every digital team now has to reckon with.”
It can be exciting. It can be overwhelming. And if you’ve experimented with it for more than three minutes, you already know it can make a huge mess.
At Southleft, we’ve spent a lot of time exploring how AI shows up in real workflows. Not hypotheticals. Not theory. Actual hands-on work inside large design systems and complex organizations with high expectations, tight governance, and zero appetite for chaos.
What we’ve learned is simple:
AI by itself is unpredictable. Design systems by themselves are powerful.
But together, they become something genuinely transformative.
AI gives you speed, invention, pattern exploration, and a way to compress tedious tasks.
Design systems give you quality, consistency, guardrails, and organizational truth.
Pair them well, and teams don’t just move faster. They produce more consistent, higher-quality work with less friction.
That’s exactly why we’re launching the AI & Design Systems course.
Why We’re Creating This Course
You’ve probably seen us share experiments openly on LinkedIn and elsewhere. We do that because we want people to see what’s actually possible, and also what isn’t.
AI is polarizing right now. Everyone has opinions. Hot takes. Big predictions. Fear. Excitement. Disbelief. Exhaustion. All of it.
But the reality is that most people working inside design systems teams are quietly asking the same questions:
“What does AI mean for our system?”
“How do we use it without breaking everything?”
“What’s real? What’s hype? What’s safe?”
“How do we keep control of quality?”
We’ve been in the trenches on exactly those problems. And we’ve been doing it alongside two of the best collaborators we’ve ever had the privilege of working with: Brad & Ian Frost.
Brad, Ian, and I have worked together across multiple large-scale design system engagements. We’ve seen what happens when teams pair strong system foundations with thoughtful automation. We’ve also seen what happens when they don’t.
This course is our attempt to give people a clear, steady, honest guide through all of this.
No scare tactics. No hype. No “10x your workflow with these magical prompts.”
Just the real lessons we’ve learned by doing the work.
What You’ll Learn
This course teaches teams how to:
- Understand where AI fits into actual DS workflows
- Keep your standards and quality intact
- Use AI to accelerate, not replace, human expertise
- Reduce manual drudgery without losing intentional design
- Adopt tools and patterns that work today (not someday)
- Apply practical patterns, naming structures, and setup that make AI more reliable
- Create better collaboration between design, engineering, and AI agents
- Build a long-term strategy instead of chasing the hype cycle
We’ll show you both the concepts and the hands-on techniques we’ve refined through real projects. And as the tools evolve, we’ll keep updating the material and sharing what we learn.
Learning Together as a Community
One thing we’re genuinely excited about is the community that’s forming around this course. AI is moving fast, and none of us have all the answers. What we do have is a shared commitment to learning in the open, comparing notes, and helping each other navigate what’s working, what isn’t, and what’s emerging next.
By preordering the course, you’ll get access to a private AI & Design Systems Slack group where we’ll share:
- Practical resources
- Experiments and demos
- Real patterns from real projects
- Live sessions and Q&A with Brad, Ian, and me
- Wins, failures, and in-progress thinking
- Conversations about whatever the next wave of AI brings
This isn’t a “watch it once and you’re done” kind of course. It’s an evolving body of work shaped by real practice, new tools, and continuous learning. If you join early, you get to grow with us from day one.
Preorder benefits
If you preorder the course, you’ll receive:
- A 45% discount off the full $900 course price
- An additional 20% discount for teams and enterprises
- Preorder-exclusive resources to help you get started right away
- First access to new videos, walk-throughs, and materials as they’re released
- Access to the AI & Design Systems Slack community
- Live sessions and Q&A with TJ, Brad, and Ian
- And, honestly, our genuine gratitude
All the details are here: https://aianddesign.systems
A Note About Brad’s Other Work
If you’re not familiar with Brad’s courses, you should be. He’s been shaping the design systems landscape for years, and his other course work is incredible:
- Subatomic: The Complete Guide to Design Tokens
- Atomic Design Certification Course
- Tons of writing, teaching, and resources that have helped an entire generation of DS practitioners
We’re proud to collaborate with Brad and Ian on this new course, and we’re equally proud to support everything they’ve built.
We Hope You’ll Join Us
AI is moving fast, and the only way to navigate it confidently is to do it together—with clarity, with curiosity, and with a commitment to quality.
If you’re feeling overwhelmed, excited, skeptical, or just plain curious about how AI fits into your design system, this course was made for you.
We’d love to have you join us!
👉 https://aianddesign.systems