TJ Pitre
TJ Pitre is the Product Architect for AI and Design Systems at Figma, and Founder/Owner of Southleft, a design systems consultancy. He works with teams to bridge design and engineering using structured context, modern tooling, and practical experimentation.
AI Without the Chaos: Context-Based Design Systems in Practice
Tues, 8th – 10:00
Design systems succeed or fail on one thing: whether teams can actually find and use the right patterns without guessing. That's been true for a decade, and it's still true now that AI tools are in the mix.
In this talk, TJ walks through the Context-Based Design Systems (CBDS) framework — a practical model for structuring components, tokens, and documentation so they hold up under real production pressure. You'll see what actually breaks design systems in practice — naming, governance, adoption — and how a stronger foundation fixes it.
AI shows up too, but as a supporting player: once a system has the right structure, AI tools can use that same context to generate more consistent, on-brand work instead of adding to the mess. You will leave with a clearer model for building resilient design systems, and a sense of where AI can responsibly extend that foundation.
TJ will also give a workshop on Building Context-Based Design Systems for AI-Driven Product Teams!
- On the web
- https://southleft.com/
- On LinkedIn
- tpitre
- On Bluesky
- @tpitre.bsky.social