Craig Wilson | The 2026 AI Agent Chain, AI Edition

The 2026 Agent Chain Human-Directed AI-Executed Developer-Ready

Idea → UX Research → Wireframe →
UI Generator → Asset Generator → Dev Handoff.

This is the workflow most UX teams are describing in 2026 , an agent chain where human prompts go in and design-system-aware, production-ready output comes out. Below is the pipeline I run, the tools I pair at each stage, and the shift that makes this year different from every year before it.

The 2026 workflow most teams are describing is an agent chain: Idea → UX Research Agent → Wireframe Agent → UI Generator → Asset Generator → Dev Handoff.

, UX and AI Resources, October 2026

01 / IDEA

Human-directed intent

The chain starts with a prompt: a problem to solve, a user to serve, an opportunity to pressure-test. I own the brief.

02 / UX RESEARCH AGENT

Dovetail · Sprig · UX Pilot

Agentic synthesis of interviews, surveys, and behavior. Patterns surface in minutes; synthetic testers pressure-test before real users.

03 / WIREFRAME AGENT

Uizard · Relume

Prompts and sketches become sitemaps and low-fi flows. Structure first, before pixels , I curate and redirect.

04 / UI GENERATOR

Figma Make · Stitch · v0

Hi-fi screens generated against the live design system , brand-consistent, not generic. The 2026 shift: tools understand your tokens.

05 / ASSET GENERATOR

Midjourney · Firefly

Illustration, imagery, icon systems, and marketing visuals produced on-spec and on-brand. No more stock-photo compromises.

06 / DEV HANDOFF

Claude Code · Copilot · v0

Figma to production HTML/CSS/React. Handoff stops being a wall; the design that ships is the design that was approved.

The notable shift this year

Tools now understand design systems and brand consistency rather than producing generic templates , and “synthetic user” testing (Uxia, Sprig) pressure-tests designs before real user studies. That is why the chain works end-to-end in 2026, where in 2024 it broke at every seam.

The Stack

AI agents I run inside the chain

Mapped to the six stages above , the exact tools UX professionals are deploying in 2026, sourced from the UX & AI Resources index.

UX Research & Synthesis

Dovetail , agentic synthesis; auto-themes across interviews & surveys
Sprig AI , Design, Field, & Synthesize agents for open-ended data
Maze , AI-first usability + prototype validation
UX Pilot , interview-question generation
Uxia , synthetic AI testers for early rounds
Claude / ChatGPT , affinity mapping, persona drafts

Wireframes & Sitemaps

Uizard , rapid wireframes from prompts & sketches
Relume , AI sitemaps & wireframes for web / marketing
Google Stitch , prompts → multi-screen flows
Claude Design , low-fi exploration + system reasoning

UI Generation

Figma AI / Figma Make , hi-fi UI aware of your design system
Google Stitch , exports to Figma or code
v0 (Vercel) , production-ready web UI from language
Framer AI , prototype & site generation

Asset Generation

Midjourney , brand imagery, illustration, hero visuals
Adobe Firefly , vector, icon systems, brand-safe assets
Figma Make , in-context component variants & states

Accessibility & Validation

Stark , AI-powered contrast & WCAG auditing
Attention Insight , predictive heatmaps pre-launch
Miro AI , clustering, summarization on shared boards
Jotform AI Agents , research-pipeline automation

Dev Handoff

Claude Code , Figma → production React / HTML / CSS
GitHub Copilot , in-IDE pair for test & refactor
v0 (Vercel) , UI → deployable Next.js
DeepSeek , reasoning for component architecture

Speed without sacrifice

What used to take weeks of prototyping now takes hours. AI handles the repetitive 70%, the boilerplate, the variants, the documentation, so I spend my time on the 30% only a human can do: judgment, taste, and empathy.

4×

Faster iterations from concept to clickable

Insight you cannot fake

Claude can ingest 800 pages of research, 10,000 customer reviews, and a year of analytics, then surface the three patterns that actually matter. No more design decisions based on the loudest stakeholder in the room.

85%

Less time on synthesis, more on solutions

Design that survives prod

AI pairs with me on the prototype code itself, accessibility checks, edge cases, responsive states, performance budgets. The design that ships looks like the design that was approved, because the gap closed.

60%

Fewer post-launch UX defects

Claude Code × Claude Design Anthropic AI · The Dev Partner That Ships

I don't just use Claude.
I build with it.

Claude Code is my agentic development partner, it reads my repos, writes production code, reviews itself, opens PRs, and pair-programs on real world-class AI applications. Not a chatbot in a tab. An engineer at my terminal.

Claude Design is how I ship experiences. From Figma to hi-fi HTML, from wireframe to working prototype, from stakeholder deck to interactive demo, Claude translates intent into pixel-perfect, accessible, responsive interfaces that survive the handoff to production.

The result is what you'd expect from a Principal UX Designer + 25 years + an AI collaborator that never sleeps: projects that ship in days, not quarters.

craig@portfolio ~ claude code

$ claude "add a filterable projects grid to index.html"

// Claude Code · reading workspace...

✓ Analyzed index.html (2,700 lines)

✓ Detected design tokens · gold/cyan/violet palette

✓ Wrote grid, filter chips, JS handler

✓ Ran responsive checks · 320px → 1440px

✓ A11y: focus rings, aria-pressed, keyboard nav

→ 12 files edited · 0 regressions · shipped in 4m 17s

Claude Design · Auto-Generated Component

Ai-Assisted Figma → Code Ship Ready

Craig WilsonPrincipal UX · Now

Prototype delivered

Approved

Agentic Coding

Claude Code reads my whole codebase, edits multiple files atomically, runs its own tests, and stops when it's actually done, not when it thinks it is.

2,700+ Lines refactored in a session

Design → Live UI

I hand Claude a Figma frame, a screenshot, or a napkin sketch. It hands back HTML, CSS, and JS that responds, animates, and passes WCAG contrast.

15 min Figma → shippable prototype

Research Synthesis

Drop 200 interview transcripts into a project. Claude clusters themes, tags severity, drafts personas, and cites the quote each insight came from.

85% Less synthesis busywork

Custom AI Agents

I use the Claude Agent SDK to build product-specific assistants, adjusters, underwriters, dev-center guides, that live inside real applications.

6+ In-product AI agents shipped

World-Class AI Applications

Real products, built with Claude
at the co-pilot's seat.

Every one of these was designed and engineered end-to-end with Claude Code + Claude Design in the workflow, from research to interactive prototype to production HTML.

Insurance AI

AI Claims Adjuster Cockpit

A live cockpit where an AI assistant triages P&C claims: reads FNOL, extracts entities, drafts coverage decisions, and walks the adjuster through every step. Built with the Claude Agent SDK, streaming responses, and a Figma-designed conversational UI.

Claude Sonnet 4.6Agent SDKHTML · CSS · JSStreaming

Dev Platform

Developer Center Guide (Mio)

An always-on cartoon-Craig assistant that lives on-page and coaches devs through API sandbox, key generation, and code samples. Persona-driven, memory-enabled, wired to product docs. On this site right now.

Claude APIPrompt CachingTool UseVanilla JS

Health & Benefits

Kornerstone Fizook Portal

End-to-end AI UX design across the Fizook portfolio, generative assistance and intelligent workflows baked into every administrative-service interface. Claude drives content generation, form pre-fill, and inline explanations.

Claude Opus 4.7Figma → HTMLDesign TokensWCAG AA

Research Ops

UX Research Synthesis Agent

Ingest 100+ Zoom transcripts, JIRA tickets, and survey CSVs. Output: ranked themes, tagged personas, cited quotes, and a stakeholder-ready readout. Turned 3-week research sprints into 3-day ones.

Claude Files APILong ContextCitationsBatch

Fintech Cockpit

SVB API Portal Assistant

The developer-portal assistant that walks bank engineers through ACH testing, sandbox setup, and endpoint discovery, explaining ambiguous error codes in plain English with concrete next steps.

Claude APIRAGTool UseOpenAPI-Aware

Design Systems

Living Design-System Concierge

An assistant that lives inside the design-system site and answers "which component do I use for X?" with the actual token, the actual snippet, and a live preview. Ships with new library versions automatically.

Claude HaikuSemantic SearchComponent Registry

My real-world Claude workflow.

I pair with Claude Code every day, from prototype iteration to A11y audits to production deploys. Claude Design turns Figma into responsive HTML in the same session. And when a client needs an AI feature inside their product, I use the Claude Agent SDK to build it, ship it, and iterate on it live. This is the future of UX Engineering, and I'm already there.

10×

Ship velocity vs. 2023

About · Inside the Chain

I humanize technology.
And I orchestrate the agents.

Twenty-five years shipping interfaces taught me what to design. The 2026 agent chain changed how I ship it , and I run every stage of it.

25+

Years
UX Design

Gartner Top 10

IT Products

"Design is a funny word. Some people think design means how it looks. But of course, if you dig deeper, it's really how it works." – Steve Jobs

As a Principal UX Designer and front-end prototyper, I have spent 25+ years shipping mobile-first interfaces used by hundreds of thousands of people. The thing that always made me useful on a team is the same thing that makes me useful in 2026: I live on the seam between UX Design and Front-End Engineering, so my concepts don't die in handoff, they ship.

What is different now is that I don't just use AI tools, I orchestrate the full 2026 agent chain: Idea → UX Research Agent → Wireframe Agent → UI Generator → Asset Generator → Dev Handoff. I bring the taste, the system knowledge, and the brief; the agents bring the throughput. The result is design-system-aware output, synthetic-user validation before real studies, and prototype code that looks exactly like what was approved.

Below is how I show up at each link of the chain , six roles I used to split across a team, now one practitioner with a stack of agents.

01 · Idea & BriefProblem framing · JTBD · stakeholder alignment

02 · UX Research AgentDovetail · Sprig · Claude · UX Pilot

03 · Wireframe AgentUizard · Relume · Google Stitch

04 · UI GeneratorFigma Make · v0 · Framer AI

05 · Asset GeneratorMidjourney · Firefly · brand systems

06 · Dev HandoffClaude Code · Copilot · HTML/CSS/React

Interactive Resume Download Resume My UX Playbook

Featured Projects

Things I've designed,
coded, and shipped.

A curated selection of work spanning Fidelity, SVB, Zions, Under Armour, ExxonMobil, and Northrop Grumman, plus a few side projects I couldn't resist.

FEATURED · AI x UX

AI in UX Product Research & Design

My daily workflow runs on Claude Code, Claude Design, and DeepSeek for reasoning and build; GitHub Copilot and Cursor as my top-rated AI coding assistants; Figma AI and UX Pilot for generative design and rapid prototyping; and Snyk, GitGuardian, and Semgrep, industry standards for dependency scanning, secrets detection, and SAST, to lock down the data layer. I lean on this stack to build web applications that are highly verified, validated, and secure: research synthesises faster, code hardens earlier, and the designs ship better.

Read the Case Study User Research Wireframing Data Analysis

MOBILE FIRST

Mobile App UX

25 years of mobile-first design. 85% of users live on smart devices, I design like it.

Figma Examples

FIDELITY · 70K USERS

My Work Hub

Designed in Figma, coded in HTML/Angular. The front-end prototype became the blueprint for Fidelity's XTRAC WorkHub, used today by 70,000 employees.

Watch Video Prototype

DESIGN SYSTEMS

Living Design Systems

At Fidelity, Zions, and SVB I built and led the design system practice from scratch, research, HTML/CSS prototype, governance, and team enablement.

View Prototype

SVB · API PORTAL

API Portal & Sandbox

SVB's developer portal, designed with built-in key gen, ACH testing, and a tailored sandbox for business clients.

V1 V2

UX ENGINEERING

Design → Code Handoff

Figma to HTML/CSS to production. Developers focus on the API; I make sure the experience that lands on screen is the one we designed.

Prototype

FIGMA · DEV MODE

Engineering in Figma

Real-time collaboration, prototyping, design tokens, and Dev Mode code-gen, Figma is the new design IDE.

Designs

UNM · PRO BONO

LTER Network Data Portal

A pro-bono redesign for the University of New Mexico, the data portal used by ecological scientists to research agriculture and animal behavior.

My Prototype Implemented

UNDER ARMOUR

UA.com Data Tables

Prototyped UnderArmour.com in Axure and redesigned the Product Promotion data tables, customizable columns, exportable metric charts.

UA Proto Data Tables

SVB GATEWAY

SVB Gateway Design

Led a Figma-first design team building the transactional gateway for venture-funded startups, remote deposit, payments, statements, fraud prevention baked in.

ZIONS · GOVERNANCE

Product Delivery Guide

At Zions Bancorp I authored the end-to-end software delivery process: BI → Design → Usability → QA → Deploy → Monitor → Maintain.

Employment

25+ years.
One throughline.

From start-ups to Fortune 50, leading UX strategy, design, and engineering teams.

2026–PRESENT

Kornerstone Administrative Services

Principal AI - UX Designer · AI - UX Strategist · Lead AI - UX Engineer

Leading AI UX design and AI integration across Kornerstone's full product portfolio, embedding generative assistance and intelligent workflows into every administrative-service interface.

2024–2026

Plan End Game

Principal UX Designer · Lead UX Engineer · Sr. Design Manager

Led product design, managed contractors, built financial dashboards in Figma, and embedded AI directly into the design workflow.

2021–2024

Silicon Valley Bank / First Citizens

Principal UX Product Designer · Lead UX Engineer · Sr. Design Manager

Defined enterprise standards for extensible UI components. Led the charge on UX strategy, mentoring, and design-system best practices across SVB's product suite.

2018–2021

Zions Bancorporation

Principal UX Designer · Principal Solutions Architect · Standards & Compliance

Owned governance policies, ran technical working groups, built UI style guides & pattern libraries, and established the Product Design Center of Excellence.

2015–2017

Fidelity Investments

Principal UX Designer · Solutions Architect · UX Product Manager

Designed and developed XTRAC's Dev Center, the single source of truth for APIs, components, patterns, and templates across all Fidelity development teams.

2014–2015

Under Armour

Principal IxD / UX / UI / Human Factors Engineer

Created UA's UX Future Vision: mind maps, hi-fi prototypes, internal branding standards, and style guide for the new PIM (CMS) application.

2013–2014

ExxonMobil

Principal IxD / UX Engineer · Architecture Manager

Managed UX teams in Buenos Aires, Kuala Lumpur, and Houston. Drove Lean UX redesign of 100+ internal apps. Authored ExxonMobil's UX Vision and 3–5 year roadmap.

2013

Northrop Grumman

Principal IxD / UI / UX Engineer · Mentor

Lead UX engineer for the "Smart Navigator", a Section 1311(i) ACA compliance tool used across multiple US states. Built to full Section 508 accessibility.

2012

Open Solutions / Fiserv

Principal IxD / UX / Human Factors Engineer

Led user-centered design and usability testing for new Open Solutions packages. Lead engineer on the next-gen iOS & Android initiative.

References

What teammates,
managers, and partners say.

Verified references from VPs, senior engineers, and lead designers I've partnered with at Fidelity, SVB, Fiserv, and beyond.

"I've worked with Craig on numerous web applications over the past 20 years. He introduced cutting-edge UI/UX processes to Fidelity and used them to design and develop three of Fidelity's most visible applications, XTRAC, New Investment Accounts, Mutual Funds Evaluator, and Active Trader Pro. These applications brought millions in new customer investments."

Scott Player

VP of Security Architecture · Fidelity Investments

"Craig is a rare combination of skills. He's a user experience designer with great engineering capability, or conversely, an excellent engineer with great UX ability. He has shown an amazing ability to learn and use new tools, to the degree that he can teach the group how to use the tools he just learned."

Keith Haney

Sr. Manager, UX Team · Snap One

"I highly endorse Craig as a UX Product Design Manager. He's been my manager for years and has consistently demonstrated exceptional skills that have contributed to the success of our team and projects. He has a deep understanding of UX principles and best practices, and he's an effective communicator and problem solver."

Shereen Khundmiri

Lead UX Product Designer · Silicon Valley Bank

"Having Craig on our team gave engineers peace of mind, we could focus exclusively on code without worrying about the overall look and feel of our products. His penchant for building applications that delivered a great user experience made him a unique asset to the organization."

Will Adams

Senior Software Engineer · Fiserv

"After I hired Craig at LANDesk, he quickly gained the respect of the human factors, development, and QA teams. While others were creating prototypes for developers to build, Craig built the actual UI that shipped in the product, constructed so devs could hook their code directly to it. One of the biggest PR wins for the team."

David Payne

Manager, Information Development · Symantec

Designing the brain behind the interface.

Idea → UX Research → Wireframe → UI Generator → Asset Generator → Dev Handoff.

Human-directed intent

Dovetail · Sprig · UX Pilot

Uizard · Relume

Figma Make · Stitch · v0

Midjourney · Firefly

Claude Code · Copilot · v0

The notable shift this year

AI agents I run inside the chain

UX Research & Synthesis

Wireframes & Sitemaps

UI Generation

Asset Generation

Accessibility & Validation

Dev Handoff

Speed without sacrifice

Insight you cannot fake

Design that survives prod

I don't just use Claude. I build with it.

Agentic Coding

Design → Live UI

Research Synthesis

Custom AI Agents

Real products, built with Claudeat the co-pilot's seat.

AI Claims Adjuster Cockpit

Developer Center Guide (Mio)

Kornerstone Fizook Portal

UX Research Synthesis Agent

SVB API Portal Assistant

Living Design-System Concierge

My real-world Claude workflow.

The UX workflow,re-engineered.

Yesterday's UX Process

AI-Augmented Process

I humanize technology.And I orchestrate the agents.

The UX EngineeringPlaybook.

Things I've designed,coded, and shipped.

AI in UX Product Research & Design

Mobile App UX

My Work Hub

Living Design Systems

API Portal & Sandbox

Design → Code Handoff

Engineering in Figma

LTER Network Data Portal

UA.com Data Tables

SVB Gateway Design

Product Delivery Guide

25+ years.One throughline.

Recognition for work that ships.

#2 of Top 10 in IT

MVP UX Champion

Avocent Excellence

Best in Class UX

Product teams I'veled and partnered with at amazing enterprises.

What teammates,managers, and partners say.

More on LinkedIn

Let's grab some timeand have a conversation.

Designing the

brain behind

the interface.

Idea → UX Research → Wireframe →
UI Generator → Asset Generator → Dev Handoff.

I don't just use Claude.
I build with it.

Real products, built with Claude
at the co-pilot's seat.

The UX workflow,
re-engineered.

I humanize technology.
And I orchestrate the agents.

The UX Engineering
Playbook.

Things I've designed,
coded, and shipped.

25+ years.
One throughline.

Product teams I've
led and partnered with at amazing enterprises.

What teammates,
managers, and partners say.

Let's grab some time
and have a conversation.