Design patterns emerged to solve recurring problems in ways that could be communicated and reused. The Gang of Four patterns, architectural patterns, domain patterns — all were responses to the constraints of their era.
AI changes some constraints. Boilerplate is cheap. Transformation is trivial. But complexity management, system boundaries, and team coordination remain hard. The patterns that address those problems remain relevant.
What's shifting is how patterns are applied. AI can instantiate patterns, but choosing the right pattern for a context still requires judgment. The skill moves from implementation to selection and adaptation.
New patterns are emerging too — patterns for prompt design, for agent orchestration, for human-AI collaboration. The field is young, but the need for shared vocabulary is already clear.