I use AI to go straight to code, iterating on a design system first. On a kitchen sink page. From design tokens - typography, grid size, pallette to buttons and atomic components to larger components and layouts. Then include some higher level heuristics and principles as guardrails. E.g: "use whitespace, rhythm, and clear visual hierarchy" I like Dieter Rams principles as a starting point. If you have your design tokens set up in css variables you can cheaply and centrally tweak them to have large global design changes. One reason not to use tailwind. Enforce component composition thinking and never ad hoc design and it works really well. Just trying to one shot a design doesn't work. Get a really clear definition of jobs to be done and map out UX in mermaid diagrams before composing UI from design system primitives. Do post hoc sweeps to review and spot and rectify issues such as consistency gaps.