When AI Reads Your Docs Literally

Ever watched someone solve one of those shape sorting puzzles by just pushing every shape through the biggest hole? If you're a designer, you probably know exactly which video I'm talking about.

That's roughly what happens when an AI tries to use your design system documentation.

Recent updates to AI prototyping tools let you connect your design system docs, brand guidelines, and component libraries directly into the generation process. The AI reads your style guide, interprets your rules, and builds screens based on what it understands.

Key word: understood.

Your docs say "use primary blue for CTAs." The AI picks a blue. Not your blue, because you never specified which primary blue applies to which of your three brand variants. Your spacing guidelines say "generous whitespace for hero sections." The AI interprets generously as 120px. You meant 96px.

It's like a recipe that says "add salt to taste." A human adjusts. The AI asks how many grams and stalls if you don't answer.

Every misinterpretation is a gap in your docs you didn't know about. Unclear component guidance gets the wrong variant. Ambiguous rules get creative interpretation. Missing context about when to use which pattern gets reflected right back at you in the output.

For teams running design systems across multiple brands, this is worth trying. Generate a few screens from your docs and see where the AI stumbles. Those stumbles are your documentation roadmap.

If something with zero design intuition can follow your documentation, it's probably clear enough for everyone else too.