The End of Design?

Will they be highly sought after though? I don't mean to sound pessimistic, but most companies I'm seeing are not prioritizing design, so therefore they aren't hiring designer(s) or they are hiring designers that have less experience/lower salary expectations, so they are more likely to use AI tools to generate their designs and less likely to understand the big picture when it comes to the product.

As far as I can tell, companies that prioritize design are still in the minority (like AirBNB, Stripe, Apple, etc. They may seek out the designers you describe, but there will only ever be so many jobs at these companies.