
Supra Insider
#54: How leading designers are riding the AI prototyping wave | Will Newton (Principal Product Architect @ Amplitude)
Welcome to another episode of Supra Insider. This time, Marc and Ben sat down with Will Newton, Principal Product Architect at Amplitude—and one of our most popular past guests—for a follow-up conversation on the fast-evolving world of AI tooling in product design and development.
In just a few weeks since our last chat, Amplitude has gone from early AI experimentation to giving Bolt licenses to every designer. Will takes us inside this transition and breaks down how AI is changing design workflows, redefining prototyping, and collapsing traditional linear product development.
We also get deep on the concept of taste—what it means to produce high-quality work in a world where the UI layer is increasingly commoditized. Plus, a live Bolt demo, the hidden risks of lazy thinking with AI, and why the future belongs to generalists with strong judgment and taste.
If you’re a PM, designer, or product leader trying to make sense of the new AI-powered stack, this one’s for you.
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In this episode, we covered the following topics:
* How Amplitude moved from AI experimentation to company-wide adoption of Bolt
* The current “happy path” for AI-driven prototyping at Amplitude
* Where AI tools like Bolt and Vercel’s V0 outperform Figma—and where they don’t
* Why the “fake it” phase of prototyping is being reinvented and front-loaded
* The rise of UI as a disposable layer and what that means for product teams
* A live demo of Bolt’s new Figma-to-UI workflow
* Why “taste” is now a critical skill in the AI era—and how to define and sharpen it
* The dangers of lazy thinking when using AI tools
* How PMs and designers can level up by embracing generalist skills
* And more!
If you’d like to watch the video of our conversation, you can catch that on YouTube:
Links:
* Will Newton: https://www.linkedin.com/in/williamnewton/
* Will Newton’s X: https://x.com/willdjthrill
* Bolt: www.bolt.new
* Amplitude: https://amplitude.com/
* Ben: https://www.linkedin.com/in/benerez/
* Marc: https://www.linkedin.com/in/marcbaselga/
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