After our last episode where Phillip Maggs outlined a vision for automating design production work, we asked ourselves,How might design organizations need to change as a result of AI? To answer this we spoke to the best in the industry, Peter Merholz who co-authored the book “Org Design for Design Orgs.” While our focus is on design, what we discuss will help anyone working on product teams.

01:49 Meet Peter Merholtz: Design Expert 05:44 Scaling Design Teams: Challenges and Solutions 14:07 AI in Design: Opportunities and Concerns 24:16 Ethics and Future of AI in Design 34:59 Gen AI in Design: Non-Linear Experiences 38:58 Personalization and Regulation in AI 42:27 Challenges and Opportunities in AI-Driven Personalization 44:15 AI's Role in Organizational Design 47:51 The Future of Design Teams with AI 58:04 Collaboration and Identity in Design

This is episode 21 and we’re having our most important conversation about design’s struggles:

➤ Scaling design teams & scaling their problems

➤ Designers and design leaders are overwhelmed➤ Importance of working in a culture that values learning

➤ AI's potential impact on design 

➤ Doubts about personalization & adaptive experiences

➤ What designers need to do to succeed

Peter Merholz has worked at the intersection of design, technology, and humans for over 25 years. Currently, he’s an independent consultant focused on improving the effectiveness of design organizations. His clients include JP Morgan Chase, Ceridian, The New York Times, Roblox, and Starbucks.

He co-founded Adaptive Path, the premier user experience consultancy, acquired by Capital One in 2014. After leaving Adaptive Path, served as a design executive, leading teams at Groupon, OpenTable, Capital One, Snagajob (now Snag), and Kaiser Permanente.

He co-wrote Org Design for Design Orgs, still the premier book on building in-house design teams, and co-hosts Finding Our Way, a podcast exploring design leadership.

Oh, and, yeah, he coined the word “blog.”

Follow him on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/petermerholz/ And contact him via his website https://www.petermerholz.com/

Thank you for listening to the Design of AI podcast. We interview AI leaders and discuss the latest innovations. We help teams learn how to leverage AI to reshape their industries.

If you like learning about AI and how to grow your career, make sure to follow us on your fave podcasting app. It really helps us if you leave reviews.

To get more AI and career resources, subscribe on Substack: https://designofai.substack.com/ 

This episode was hosted by:

Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Head of product strategy, PH1 Research) 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ 

Brittany Hobbs (VP Insights, Huge) 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/

What’s the future of design? After seeing creative technologist, Phillip Maggs, present at Figma’s Config conference, we had to interview him. We’ll discuss industry-disrupting design automations & how they will empower human decision making.

In episode 20 we answer the questions that have been worrying designers and products teams:

➤ Which types of design will be automated

➤ Design systems & brand guidelines as LLMs

➤ How brands will use GenAI to augment specific workflows

➤ Which skills, mindsets, expertise will protect your job

➤ The best way to leverage GenAI as a force of good

➤ The importance of becoming a creative technologist

Phillip Maggs leads generative AI excellence—empowering Superside and its customers in harnessing potential of AI. Built, tested and developed Superside's AI service offerings with 500+ projects and counting, many of which are to augment the creative teams at the biggest brands in the world. He’s worked with Netflix, Google, IBM and Rolls Royce, plus is an award-winning strategic consultant and special effects company co-founder.

Follow him on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/philmaggs/ 

Watch his Figma presentation https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C06uyfRzAYk

  

Thank you for listening to the Design of AI podcast. We interview AI leaders and discuss the latest innovations. We help teams learn how to leverage AI to reshape their industries.

If you like learning about AI and how to grow your career, make sure to follow us on your fave podcasting app. It really helps us if you leave reviews.

To get more AI and career resources, subscribe on Substack: https://designofai.substack.com/ 

This episode was hosted by:

Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Head of product strategy, PH1 Research) 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ 

Why are brands investing into AI? How can they succeed? What can we learn from how experts in the field of innovation lead transformation projects? Where will AI actually deliver impact in the near term? Joining us is Nick Sherrard, who is involved in digital innovation conversations across Fortune 500, government, and startups. He is a co-founder of Label Sessions, the global innovation expert network, and Label Ventures, the venture studio. He is also a board member at Substrakt, the digital agency, and Collective art gallery in Edinburgh. Nick is often said to be the only person to have run an innovation lab inside a bank, a government department, a big 4 consultancy and a circus. His approach to making change happen in organisations fuses his more classic brand and product development background, with the devising mindset of arts producer. Nick advises boards and entrepreneurs globally. Add him on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/goodideas/ In this episode we cover: ▸ Top-down and bottom-up approaches to leading AI projects ▸ History of art and innovation is the history of rejection ▸ Leaders of AI projects often don’t anticipate what’s needed ▸ The problem with design thinking when building AI products ▸ How the creative & consulting worlds are enhanced by AI ▸ Use cases where AI will have impact Subscribe to the Design of AI podcast for more in-depth resources for product teams. For show notes, product resources, insights, and strategies, please subscribe to our newsletter: https://designofai.substack.com

Building products with GenAI brings powerful new capabilities but also a whole new set of uncertainties. Teams can't rely on best practices because the technology is changing so quickly and users are cautiously adopting change. Designing and shipping products can no longer be thought about as a linear process. Alexandra Holness, Senior Lead Product Designer at Klaviyo, joins to share lessons, cautions, and a path forward to help product teams build AI products that customers want. She sees that successful product teams will depend on designer, data scientists, engineers working more closely than ever because it is very hard to predict how customers will use models until you've shipped them. Have questions? Join the conversation https://www.linkedin.com/company/designofai/ Subscribe to the Design of AI podcast for more in-depth resources for product teams. For show notes, product resources, insights, and strategies, please subscribe to our newsletter: https://designofai.substack.com

Tech has been promising personalized experiences for a decade. Now GenAI can finally deliver on that. Amy Bucher Ph.D joins us to discuss how she leverages AI for behavior change and the technology’s potential for delivering meaningful outcomes. We go into how product teams should leverage AI for best results and the types of outcomes you should design for. Dr. Amy Bucher is the Chief Behavioral Officer at Lirio where she leads the behavioral design of their AI products for healthcare. She authored Engaged: Designing for Behavior Change, which was widely used by product and marketing teams.Have questions? Join the conversation https://www.linkedin.com/company/designofai/Subscribe to the Design of AI podcast for more in-depth resources for product teams.For show notes, product resources, insights, and strategies, please subscribe to our newsletter: designofai.substack.com

How can AI make our workflows and products more effective? It’s a question every product team is asking itself as they decide to invest into developing or licensing products. Let’s learn from two building and leveraging AI today. Two case study presenters from the upcoming Rosenfeld Design with AI Conference (June 4 & 5) will be with us to detail out how they leveraged GenAI. Savannah Carlin, Staff Product Designer at Marqeta, will detail how to design conversational interactions with AI. Weidan Li, the Design Research Lead at SEEK.com, will outline AI’s performance in analyzing qualitative data. Design of AI, the podcast for product teams Hosted by Brittany Hobbs & Arpy Dragffy Guerrero. Find us on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/designofai/ Subscribe on Spotify, Apple, YouTube for weekly interviews with leaders at the forefront of AI. And join our substack newsletter to get resources, insights, and strategies for product teams https://designofai.substack.com

Building products using emerging technologies is more difficult. As we’re seeing with building AI products today, teams are often chasing which use case and customer profiles to focus on. It’s harder because the new technologies make us obsess over what’s possible rather than what people actually need. Dr. Llewyn Paine joins us to share lessons and strategies from her advising teams working on spatial computing, virtual reality, and robotics. Her expertise is helping teams make better product decisions through research. We’ll discuss how to identify your best potential customers and design higher-value products and services they’ll love to use. She is an innovation strategy consultant with nearly two decades of experience in emerging technologies, including mixed reality and AI at Microsoft, and experimental media for Disney. She has helped emerging technology teams launch flagship products and secure investments of over $300M. Go to designofai.substack.com to get additional resources.Read less

There are so many new GenAI products coming to market that it is hard to believe even a fraction of them will become sustainable businesses. Ben Yoskovitz, Founding Partner of Highline Beta and author of Lean Analytics, joins us to discuss how many of these startups will fail to find a product-market fit. By rushing to get to market they’re likely skipping key steps that would typically improve their likelihood of success. We discuss the process his venture studio uses and where he sees opportunities for AI products to deliver more value to consumers. Ben’s newsletter: https://www.focusedchaos.co/ Design of AI, the podcast for product teams Hosted by Brittany Hobbs & Arpy Dragffy  Subscribe to the podcast https://open.spotify.com/show/3O11vQKPpKI5ZlJhdRGwnf https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/design-of-ai-the-ai-podcast-for-product-teams/id1734499859 https://www.youtube.com/@DesignofAI And join our newsletter to get resources from our guests, plus key insights and strategies to help your business. Get it on our website: https://Designof.AI or find us on designofai.substack.com

AI has the potential to be a transformational technology. But how is it trained and how can you track authenticity? Virginie Berger, Chief Business Development and Rights Officer at Matchtune, joins us to discuss the developments with copyright issues related to creative fields in hopes of shedding light on what this means for other industries. A particular issue is what happens to business models when you can get replicas elsewhere and have no clarity on how they were derived? We explore how product teams can and should adapt. Important is protecting the rights of your users and leveraging LLMs that are ethically processing the data that you input into them. Episode of hosted by Brittany Hobbs & Arpy Dragffy Guerrero. Please subscribe to the Design of AI, the podcast for product teams who want to leverage AI to transform their industries. Visit https://designof.ai to get AI news & tools that matter to product teams.

Emily Campbell joins us to discuss the future of UX. Her Shape of AI newsletter and community have become the go-to resource for AI product design patterns. She sees AI products getting to market with far less involvement from design than they should have. Design will undoubtedly experience shocks —with roles changing, and anti-patterns emerging— but also entirely new opportunities for design to shape adaptive experiences that offer users new capabilities to personally interact with products. We discuss what comes next after prompt-based, text interfaces. Episode of hosted by Brittany Hobbs & Arpy Dragffy Guerrero. Please subscribe to the Design of AI podcast. We speak to leaders at the forefront of AI to learn how great AI products are designed and how they’re transforming industries To contact us visit our website designof.ai

Maarten Walraven-Freeling, co-editor of MUSIC x and the co-CEO of Symphony Media joins the Design of AI podcast to discuss how AI will impact the music industry. We look at how digital streaming platforms and algorithmic discovery have already led to monumental changes to the business and what to expect now that generative AI tools, like Suno, are making music creation easier and more accessible. It is clear that music is one of the first and most important battleground where we see the potential of AI as a creative tool but also where concerns are growing about GenAI platforms being trained on content without the permission of copyright holders. The show is hosted by Brittany Hobbs & Arpy Dragffy Guerrero Subscribe on Spotify, Youtube, or Apple to get our latest episodes We speak to leaders at the forefront of AI to learn how great AI products are designed and how they’re transforming industries To contact us visit our website designof.ai

Ad agencies have always had to be ahead of their curve. They need to predict what clients need tomorrow. But AI has the potential to change everything about their workflows, business models, and value. We speak with JP Holecka, CEO of POWERSHIFTER, to find out how agencies will need to adapt. He's spent the last year training agencies on GenAI capabilities, as well as pushing the limits of the tools in his own projects.

Sentient Design is the already-happening future of intelligent interfaces. Josh Clark & Veronika Kindred are here to discuss their upcoming book & vision of AI-powered experiences. In episode 19 the authors of the upcoming book, Sentient Design, tackle the biggest topics impacting product teams: ➤ The types of intelligent experiences that generative AI enables ➤ Moving beyond the chatbot: Where AI products go next ➤ Role of designers in shaping the next generation of digital products ➤ Type of relationship GenZ & Gen Alpha will have with AI ➤ Whether this is a period of optimism or skepticism

Josh Clark is the principal of Big Medium, a digital agency that helps complex organizations design for what’s next. 

Josh coined the term 'Sentient Design' to describe the already-here future of intelligent interfaces—AI-mediated experiences that seem almost self-aware in their response to user needs. Sentient Design describes the form of this new experience, as well as a framework and philosophy for applying it. Josh co-authored the book with Veronika Kindred, forthcoming book from Rosenfeld Media.

Josh is also author of several other books, including Designing for Touch (A Book Apart) and Tapworthy: Designing Great iPhone Apps (O’Reilly).  Veronika is the co-author of Sentient Design with Josh Clark  Veronika Kindred is a designer and researcher at digital agency Big Medium, where she defines and solves design problems alongside some of the world’s biggest companies.

Veronika graduated with high honors from New York University with a major in Politics and a minor in Data Science—a useful combination for navigating both organizational and technical design challenges. 

Subscribe and follow the Design of AI podcast for interviews with AI product & industry leaders that deliver lessons for teams building tomorrow's AI products. Learn how GenAI products are designed and the choices that make them successful. We hear from designers, researchers, futurists, founders, and more. And remember to subscribe to our newsletter for additional resources https://designofai.substack.com/ 

This episode was hosted by: Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Head of product strategy, PH1 Research) https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ Brittany Hobbs (VP Insights, Huge) https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/

Feel free to contact us on LinkedIn with any questions

Peter Van Dijck, Founding Partner of AI agency Simply Put joins us to discuss how his team designs and builds AI products. Peter —formerly of Huge and Work & Co— share insights from how his background as an information architect and designer enable his team to see opportunities to discover and build the right product for orgs. We discuss the growing potential of LLMs to take on more use cases and the ways in which human-centred design inform decisions that need to be made.

We’re exploring the intersection of video games, emerging technologies, and product team KPIs with Kristie J. Fisher, PhD, the Sr. Director of Global User Research, PlayStation Studios. In episode 18 we explore Kristie’s experience at Playstation, Google, and Xbox and dive into how teams can build more engaging AI product experiences: ➮ Similarities, differences, and key learnings of working in games and big tech ➮ How insights teams should be structured to ensure they’re delivering impact ➮ How to create immersive experiences by creating KPIs for joy and delight ➮ The benefits of AI to researchers and how AI is transforming games 03:11 Diving into Video Games and AI Research 04:35 The Overlooked Potential of Video Games in Tech 05:00 Challenges and Joys of Gaming Research 08:18 Pride in Leading PlayStation's Research Team 08:41 The Evolution of User Research in Gaming 17:22 The Importance of Live Testing in Gaming 25:12 Balancing Fun and Functionality in Tech Products 35:10 The Value of Integrated Insights in Organizations 36:36 The Future of AI in User Research 48:22 Conclusion: The Importance of Joy in Tech Products Kristie J. Fisher, PhD, has spent the last 15 years conducting user experience research and building and leading research teams across a variety of product domains, primarily in gaming. She currently leads the global PlayStation Studios User Research team. The mission of her team is to empower PlayStation's Studios to get to great faster by being vision-led and data informed. At Google she worked on Stadia, Gmail, and Ads and was a co-author of Google's People + AI Research Guidebook. Prior to Google she was at Xbox Research, collaborating with game producers and development teams to improve player experience on Xbox, Xbox Kinect, and Windows. A cognitive psychologist by training, her research interests center on gaming, human-computer interaction in the context of AI, and human learning and problem solving more broadly. As a leader she focuses on creating a culture of psychological safety and building systems to maximize the impact of research. Follow her on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/kristie-j-fisher-phd-2216a764 The episode is hosted by: Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Head of product strategy, PH1 Research) https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ Brittany Hobbs (VP Insights, Huge) https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/ Thank you for listening to the Design of AI podcast. We interview leaders and practitioners at the forefront of AI. If you like this episode please remember to leave a rating and to follow us on your favorite podcast app. Take part in the conversations about AI https://www.linkedin.com/company/designofai/ And subscribe to our newsletter for additional resources https://designofai.substack.com/

Episode 17. Our guest is Glenn MacDonald who was Spotify’s Data Alchemist, building it into an algorithmic powerhouse. We’re critically evaluating algorithms' effectiveness and why GenAI probably isn’t the best technology for many problems. The episode is hosted by: Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Head of product strategy, PH1 Research) https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ Brittany Hobbs (VP Insights, Huge) https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/ Glenn McDonald is a music evangelist, algorithm designer, software engineer and technology strategist. He created the music-exploration website Every Noise at Once, and for 12 years was the Data Alchemist at the Echo Nest and Spotify. He has written about music online since before "blog" was a word, and his first offline book, You Have Not Yet Heard Your Favourite Song: How Streaming Changes Music, is available now from Canbury Press 00:24 Meet Glenn MacDonald: Spotify's Data Alchemist 01:50 The Evolution of Music Discovery 08:39 The Role of AI in Music and Beyond 13:29 Challenges and Future of AI in Music 29:14 Navigating AI in the Workplace 31:25 Designing User-Friendly Algorithms 34:59 Challenges with Algorithmic Recommendations 39:42 Evaluating AI and User Testing 47:41 The Future of Music and AI Thank you for listening to the Design of AI podcast. We interview leaders and practitioners at the forefront of AI. If you like this episode please remember to leave a rating and to follow us on your favorite podcast app. Take part in the conversations about AI https://www.linkedin.com/company/designofai/ And subscribe to our newsletter for additional resources https://designofai.substack.com/

Our guest is Yasemin Cenberoglu, who was the first designer to work on Microsoft’s Copilot, all in secret, before the world was exposed to ChatGPT for the first time. Yasemin is a Principal Design Manager at Microsoft, leading the Copilot product for Teams Meetings, Calling, and Devices. She’s the first designer to shape what Copilot is today. Previously, she served as the Director of Design at Digitalist. Yasemin is an advisory board member at IDEA School of Design at Capilano University. She studied in Germany and then at Cal State, in the SF Bay area. In this conversation we discuss: ‣  Her experience as the first designer working with Microsoft and OpenAI to create the first Copilot ‣  The blue sky innovation and challenges being the first to work with GenAI as a design material ‣  Service design and how the discipline provides an advantage to designers working on  probabilistic experiences ‣  Lessons and approaches for when to build a Copilot vs. Agent vs. Chatbot ‣  How service blueprints will need to evolve to meet the needs of probabilistic design Episode is hosted by: Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Head of product strategy, PH1 Research) https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ Brittany Hobbs (VP Insights, Huge) https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/ Thank you for listening to the Design of AI podcast. We interview leaders and practitioners at the forefront of AI. If you like this episode please remember to leave a rating and to follow us on your favorite podcast app. Take part in the conversations about AI https://www.linkedin.com/company/designofai/ And subscribe to our newsletter for additional resources https://designofai.substack.com/

Product teams are struggling to find the use cases which deliver the most value to customers and where the technology can be effective. And teams that have built AI products are finding that there’s often a mismatch between what customers find valuable and what the technology can do. Our guest is Arpy Dragffy Guerrero, the founder of PH1 Research where he has consulted Spotify, Microsoft, Mozilla, National Football League, to research and strategize how to best leverage emerging technologies. He’s worked on products across AI, personalization, Web3, location-sensing, and more. His focus is creating product & testing strategies to quickly pinpoint where the best opportunities are for new products.  Follow him on social: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ https://twitter.com/arpyd  Arpy maps out Futures Design: How to build AI products that customers want.  We discuss strategies for product teams: ‣ Learning from failure & the struggles of early AI ‣ The challenge of identifying the impactful use cases of AI ‣ The importance of value drivers (& why they aren’t JTBD) ‣ Applying systems thinking to AI products & strategies ‣ People hate chatbots —agents will open new possibilities ‣ Examples of how agents could transform use cases and roles Please subscribe to: Design of AI: The podcast for product teams, on Spotify, Apple podcasts, Youtube, substack. We interview leaders and practitioners at the forefront of AI to help product teams navigate where and how to leverage AI. Substack newsletter for more content https://designofai.substack.com/ Join the conversation on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/company/103164463/ This Design of AI episode is brought to you by PH1: A research & strategy consultancy that helps clients build AI products that customers want https://ph1.ca

What is the path to building responsible AI products? We have a special guest: Jess Holbrook, the Head of UX Research for Microsoft AI. We discuss: ‣ Responsible AI: What it is and how orgs need a clear vision for it ‣ Data transparency: Ensuring you are communicating appropriately ‣ Becoming one of Google’s first user researchers working on machine learning ‣ Philosophical differences to user research at Google, Meta, and Amazon ‣ Bridging academic research and the practical development of AI products ‣ The paradigm shift that big tech is expecting AI to deliver ‣ Why the last thing you should want is a user over-trusting your product As one of the first user researchers working on AI products, Jess offers a deep and informed perspective on the challenges and opportunities of working with this new technology. He challenges organizations to build values into their products, unwaveringly and without vagueness.  Jess Holbrook is the Head of UX Research for Microsoft AI. Prior to that he was Director of UX Research for Generative AI and Responsible AI at Meta. He got his start in human-AI research about 10 years ago at Google where he was a founder and lead of Google’s People + AI Research group (PAIR). Prior to joining Google, he was a UX Researcher at Amazon and Microsoft. He received his Ph.D in Psychology from the University of Oregon and a B.S. in Psychology from the University of Washington https://linkedin.com/in/jessholbrook/ https://x.com/jessscon Please subscribe to: Design of AI: The podcast for product teams, on Spotify, Apple podcasts, Youtube, substack. We interview leaders and practitioners at the forefront of AI to help product teams navigate where and how to leverage AI. Have questions? Join the conversation in our LinkedIn community: https://www.linkedin.com/company/designofai/ Hosted by: Brittany Hobbs https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/ Arpy Dragffy Guerrero https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ This Design of AI episode is brought to you by PH1: A research & strategy consultancy that helps clients build AI products that customers want https://ph1.ca

AI is changing the role of the designer and shifting how product teams succeed. We have a special guest: Scott Jenson, formerly from Apple, Google, and Frog Design. We discuss: • Why designers feel like their entire job will go away • What advice he offers to the teams and individuals he coaches • How AI is over--hyped and where it will have impact • Lessons from working at the forefront of mobile technology • Why Google, Apple, Meta, Microsoft are all racing to get there first • Recommendations to build successful products today This conversation is more of a coaching session for the designers, researchers, and product teams trying to navigate this time of great change.We try and cut through the hype to distill out key lessons that will help you all in your careers. Scott Jenson has worked in user interface design and strategic planning for over 30 years. The first member of the System Software Human Interface group at Apple in the late 80s, working on System 7, the Apple Human Interface guidelines and the Newton digital assistant. After Apple, was a freelance design consultant, doing work for Netscape, Mayo Clinic, American Express, and several web startups. Then director of product design for Symbian, then managed Mobile UI design at Google for 6 years. Left to become creative director at frog design for 2 years but returned to Google to explore advanced UX concepts for IoT and Android at Google. 35+ patents.  https://www.linkedin.com/in/scottjenson/ Please subscribe to: Design of AI: The podcast for product teams, on Spotify, Apple podcasts, Youtube, substack. We interview leaders and practitioners at the forefront of AI to help product teams navigate where and how to leverage AI. Have questions? Join the conversation in our LinkedIn community: https://www.linkedin.com/company/designofai/ Hosted by: Brittany Hobbs https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/ Arpy Dragffy Guerrero https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ This Design of AI episode is brought to you by PH1: A research & strategy consultancy that helps clients build AI products that customers want https://ph1.ca

This conversation is a deep case study into what the capabilities of the technology are today and how product teams must leverage both creative experts and these emerging technologies, side-by-side. Our guest is Trisha Causley from Shopify. Topics we discuss: ▪ Why Trisha went from an AI skeptic to a champion ▪ What types of creative tasks GenAI is best at ▪ Tactical lessons for leveraging GenAI across product experiences ▪ Why prompt engineering must become part of your toolkit ▪ Shopify’s plan to leverage GenAI to scale & personalize brand-building ▪ Why GenAI enhances the role of creatives by expanding what you do Trisha Causley is a Senior Staff Content Designer at Shopify in Toronto, Canada, where she works on AI-powered product features. She previously worked with IBM and on the Watson team. https://www.linkedin.com/in/tcausley/ Have questions? Join the conversation in our LinkedIn community: https://www.linkedin.com/company/designofai/ Subscribe to the Design of AI podcast for more in-depth resources for product teams. Hosted by: Brittany Hobbs https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/ Arpy Dragffy Guerrero https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/

There’s no denying that AI agents will transform work, but there’s no roadmap for how to design successful agents. Jamil Valliani, Atlassian’s VP & Head of Product AI, joins us to share his secrets for building AI products in one of the most respected ecosystems in tech —Jira, Confluence, Bitbucket, Trello, and more. He also spent 15 years leading products a Microsoft. 

In this episode you’ll learn:

➤ Which types of problems to focus on

➤ Measuring the effectiveness of your AI product

➤ AI capabilities features that will define the future of work

➤ How to compete as a founder and small startup

This episode offers strategic and practical advice for product managers, designers, researchers, and founders who are embarking on creating successful AI products.

Jamil Valliani is a 20-year Search and AI industry veteran based in Seattle. As Head of Product for AI, he is focused on delivering transformative ways for teams to work using the power of Search and AI. Before Atlassian, Jamil built his career at Microsoft. He spent over 15 years leading product teams such as Bing Image Search and Video Search, among the first to use computer vision and other deep learning techniques to deliver industry-leading multimedia search experiences. He also led a three-year effort that landed many new AI features across Microsoft products, including Outlook, Teams, Windows, and Surface. He also founded Microsoft's Services Marketplace business.

Follow him on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jamil-valliani-b131881/ 

And make sure to check out Atlassian’s new AI-powered teamwork agent, Rovo https://www.atlassian.com/software/rovo 

This is episode 40 of the Design of AI Podcast. 

We provide practical strategies to ensure your AI product succeeds.

Follow us on Substack and LinkedIn to get even more AI product strategy content.

And another important update.

We’ve been getting a lot of messages from product teams. They’re getting pushed to build AI products without a clear strategy. They’re being asked to use AI as a secret weapon to gain a competitive advantage. 

Join us on Thursday September 18 for an online AI product strategy workshop led by my co-host,  Arpy Dragffy and myself. You’ll learn the best steps to identify, ideate, and test AI products. This workshop will be small and extremely hands-on. We’ll focus on how to leverage AI to enhance an existing app or website, as well as how to define an industry-defining net-new product. 

This workshop will happen on September 18

Register at https://designof.ai/workshop

This episode was brought to you by PH1 Research, specialized in rapid research to improve product decisions about your next AI release. Validate use cases, test concepts, prove monetization opportunities.

This episode was hosted by 

Brittany Hobbs https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/ 

Arpy Dragffy Guerrero https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ 

Your biggest business problems are hiding in plain sight—scattered across customer service calls, survey responses, app store reviews, and sales conversations. Our guest is Jochem van der Veer, CEO of TheyDo, reveals how organizations can unlock their biggest problems by using AI to connect data sources that were previously unimaginable. 

In this episode you’ll learn how to:

➤ Unlock the power of your customer data and insights

➤ Use journey maps in innovative ways

➤ Create an intelligence layer to make product decisions

Timestamps:01:20 Guest Introduction02:04 The Journey Mapping Evolution02:47 Building the CX Tool03:37 Challenges in Journey Mapping05:04 AI-Powered Journey Management07:08 Real-World Applications and Insights08:46 The Future of Journey Management13:23 Data Quality and AI Decision Making20:06 Practical Examples and Use Cases21:58 Identifying Customer Pain Points22:28 Evaluating Data Sources and Relevance24:51 Addressing Silos in Organizations27:23 Future of User Research and Insights32:15 Dynamic Personas and Adaptive Campaigns36:39 Quantifying Qualitative Insights40:01 Exciting AI Platforms and Tools

Jochem van der Veer is the Co-Founder and CEO of TheyDo, a leading platform for journey management that helps organisations build seamless customer experiences by aligning teams around the customer journey. With a background in design thinking and innovation, Jochem has dedicated his career to helping businesses scale customer-centric strategies. Under his leadership, TheyDo has empowered global brands to move from siloed operations to collaborative, journey-driven workflows that drive better decision-making and growth. Passionate about design, systems thinking, and the future of work, Jochem is a frequent speaker on the intersection of customer experience and business strategy.

He’s also the host of the Experience Edge Podcast, a great resource to learn about how to improve product & customer experience.

This episode was hosted by:

Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Principal Strategist PH1 Research) ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/⁠ 

Brittany Hobbs (VP Insights, Huge)  ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/⁠

And if you want more AI strategy & research content, subscribe to our substack newsletter at ⁠https://designofai.substack.com/⁠ 

This episode is brought to you by PH1 Research, a research & strategy consultancy specialized in AI product strategy & concept testing. Get more info at ⁠PH1.ca⁠ 

Follow us here:

⁠⁠Spotify⁠ https://open.spotify.com/show/3O11vQKPpKI5ZlJhdRGwnf
⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠ ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/design-of-ai-product-strategy-innovation-career-growth/id1734499859⁠  ⁠

YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@DesignofAI⁠

What seemed unimaginable a few years ago is now possible because AI is becoming cheaper and more accessible to any entrepreneur. Unlocking your data & building point solutions are the key.

By focusing on high value, repeating business problems you can leverage AI’s predictive capabilities to solve any use case.

This is episode 30 and our guest is Tyler Hochman, CEO of FORE Enterprise. We’re discussing how you can take control of AI’s predictive power. This episode is a roadmap for product teams and entrepreneurs looking to unlock their data’s disruptive potential. 

In this episode we cover:

➤ Focus on AI’s immense data structuring capabilities

➤ Hacks of get the data needed to train your model

➤ Why Entrepreneurs should focus on building point solutions

➤ AI can predict when you’ll quit your job & how to keep you

➤ Data privacy becoming a major differentiator of workplaces

➤ How OpenAI collected so much data to train their model 

Tyler Hochman is the Founder and CEO of FORE Enterprise, an AI workforce analytics platform that predicts which employees plan to leave their jobs and recommends strategies for retention. Hochman, who was recently acknowledged on Forbes 30 Under 30 list for social impact, and is at the forefront of AI innovation. Prior to founding FORE Enterprise, Tyler founded multiple consumer and B2B apps and companies, such as TH Analytics, VELLA, Modern Memoir, and SafeStop. Tyler holds a B.S. in Management Science and Engineering from Stanford, with a focus on Data Science and Finance.

Follow him: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-hochman-83b547130

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Thank you for listening to the Design of AI podcast. 

We provide a pragmatic and practical deep dive into what AI can do and how it is transforming industries. We help designers, researchers, and product managers excel in a rapidly changing future.

If you find this strategic content helpful, make sure to follow us on your fave podcasting app. It really helps us if you leave reviews.

Go to https://designof.ai to share your AI product recommendations and product ratings.

This episode was hosted by:

Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Principal Strategist PH1 Research) https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ 

Brittany Hobbs (VP Insights, Huge)  https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/

Please make sure to subscribe to our Substack to never miss an episode. On the Design of AI substack you’ll also receive more strategic insights and recommended products.  https://designofai.substack.com/ 

Which products and services should we trust? How can brands earn our trust? As we enter the AI agentic era, we’re going to be faced with increasing concerns about trustworthiness. Our guest was described by John Maeda in 2024 as "the great mind of our time for services earning trust."

This is episode 29 and we’re discussing: Trust is a double-edged sword: How AI will Transform Services with Sarah Gold. We’re providing you with a roadmap for increasing the trust of your products & services:

➤ Importance of civic tech in delivering equitable services

➤ Responsibility to focus on helping people and human KPIs

➤ Principles for increasing trustworthiness

➤ Risk of over-relying on, and trusting services too much

➤ AI agents will change our relationship with services & each other

 

Sarah Gold is a digital leader with extensive experience in conceptualising, designing and building trustworthy, high stakes products and services with emerging technologies across private and public sectors. 

Currently applying this expertise to build and grow Projects by IF, a specialist agency that she founded in London. IF helps clients, including the UK Government, Virgin Media O2 and Telus Health grow in new markets, and deepen existing relationships, through greater customer trust.

She advises the Mayor of London's Data for London programme, and the UK Design Council on digital. Her work on legibility of complex systems has won several awards, including Forbes 30 under 30 and The Observer's New Radical.

Follow her https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahtgold/ 
Find her work and resources https://www.projectsbyif.com/

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Please make sure to subscribe to our Substack to never miss an episode. On the Design of AI substack you’ll also receive more strategic insights and recommended products.  https://designofai.substack.com/

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Thank you for listening to the Design of AI podcast. 

We provide a pragmatic and practical deep dive into what AI can do and how it is transforming industries. We help designers, researchers, and product managers excel in a rapidly changing future.

If you find this strategic content helpful, make sure to follow us on your fave podcasting app. It really helps us if you leave reviews.

We’re on a mission to collect examples of how you’re using AI to elevate how you work. Share your examples at https://designof.ai 

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This episode was hosted by:

Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Principal Strategist PH1 Research) https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ 

Brittany Hobbs (VP Insights, Huge)  https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/

AI may replace many of our jobs. UX Research is one of the roles most at risk because the technology is increasingly automating many of the tasks.. John Whalen is one of the researchers working at the forefront of leveraging AI. He joins us to map out the future of research and how anyone in product can ride the AI-augmentation wave to better individual and team results.

This is episode 28 and we’re discussing how AI will transform product research with John Whalen Ph.D. We cover a topics that are hugely important to anyone working in product and agencies:

➤ How to gain more influence with stakeholders and leaders

➤ That’s it IS possible to do 7 weeks of work in 7 days thanks to AI

➤ Researchers must be curious about AI or get wiped out

➤ How we work has already been disrupted every time a new tool arrives

➤ Why synthetic users are actually immensely powerful, and when to use them

John Whalen leads Insights & Innovation at Brilliant Experience, where he helps global brands understand the psychology behind their customers' behaviors and bring successful products to market.

Initially skeptical about AI, John and his team conducted extensive “AI vs. Humans” studies to pinpoint precisely where AI-enhanced research excels—and where human judgment remains irreplaceable, and became convinced that AI will transform how research will be done.

Now he regularly interviews pioneering founders in the AI-for-UX space and leverages the latest AI tools to deliver rapid, scaled, global insights for top brands.

With a PhD from Johns Hopkins, John combines academic rigor with real-world pragmatism to help UX researchers and product leaders harness the new realities of AI-powered research.

Follow him https://www.linkedin.com/in/johnwhalen/ 

Learn about his work at https://brilliantexperience.com  

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Participate in our AI product recommendations database here https://airtable.com/appeE4oGqKJ17Rwum/pagFmrnUrIkAdHg4n/form 

Thank you for listening to the Design of AI podcast. 

We provide a pragmatic and practical deep dive into what AI can do and how it is transforming industries. We help designers, researchers, and product managers excel in a rapidly changing future.

If you find this strategic content helpful, make sure to follow us on your fave podcasting app. It really helps us if you leave reviews.

We’re on a mission to collect examples of how you’re using AI to elevate how you work. Share your examples at designof.ai

This episode was hosted by:

Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Principal Strategist PH1 Research) https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ 

Brittany Hobbs (VP Insights, Huge)  https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/

Please make sure to subscribe to our Substack to never miss an episode. On the Design of AI substack you’ll also receive more strategic insights and recommended products.  https://designofai.substack.com/ 

How are the world’s largest brands leveraging AI? Where are they getting the greatest ROI? What are the biggest fears and barriers to adopting AI at scale? To answer these questions we invited one of the world’s leading AI consultants to explain what’s happening today and shifts he expects in the near future.

This is episode 27 and our guest is Jan Emmanuele, Director of Generative AI Consulting at Superside. We’re discussing implementing AI at-scale in creative teams and cover:

➤ Where businesses are getting the most value from AI

➤ GenAI’s ability to massively scale creative outputs

➤ Processes and strategies for implementing AI effectively

➤ Addressing the challenges and fears of leveraging AI

➤ AI’s adoption as a creative multiplier will surge in 2026

This episode is perfect for business, product, and design leaders who want to get details on how to best implement AI to augment and automate workflows.

Jan leads Superside’s AI Consulting department, working intimately with some of the leading companies - incl. several Fortune 500 companies - to integrate AI into their creative workflows. Prior, he was leading investments into AI startups at a venture capital fund and has 3 years experience as a McKinsey consultant working on tech and software topics. He also holds a PhD on AI for cancer treatment and developed AI solutions in a medical device company, including several patents.

Follow him and Superside:

https://www.linkedin.com/in/jan-emmanuele-4a13a3118

https://www.superside.com/ 

Thank you for listening to the Design of AI podcast. 

We provide a pragmatic and practical deep dive into what AI can do and how it is transforming industries. We help designers, researchers, and product managers excel in a rapidly changing future.

If you find this strategic content helpful, make sure to follow us on your fave podcasting app. It really helps us if you leave reviews.

This episode was hosted by:

Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Principal Strategist PH1 Research) https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ 

Brittany Hobbs (VP Insights, Huge)  https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/

Please make sure to subscribe to our Substack to never miss an episode. On the Design of AI substack you’ll also receive more strategic insights and recommended products. We’ll also be announcing events soon too.  https://designofai.substack.com/

What we design and how we design are changing because of AI. It’s happening faster than anyone could imagine. Our guest Sara Vienna has been designing a new relationship with AI and she’s been doing it for years ahead of others.

She is Chief Design Officer at Metalab, one of the top design consultancies in the world, she leads exceptional design talent who are leveraging AI to its fullest. Sara has shaped the technology landscape for some of the biggest brands in the world and tomorrow’s disruptors.

This is episode 26 and we’re discussing Designing a New Relationship with AI. This is the most important episode yet, because we discuss:

➤ Shifting our mindsets about AI, design, and value creation

➤ Just because something is faster doesn't mean it's of quality

➤ The great responsibility of designers to question our work

➤ Challenge yourself & experiment or you will get left behind

➤ Consumers will put  money towards experiences that are valuable

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Thank you for listening to the Design of AI podcast. 

We provide a pragmatic and practical deep dive into what AI can do and how it is transforming industries. We help designers, researchers, and product managers excel in a rapidly changing future.

If you find this strategic content helpful, make sure to follow us on your fave podcasting app. It really helps us if you leave reviews.

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As Chief Design Officer, Sara leads Metalab’s Research, Strategy, and Design to ship best-in-class products. Metalab, recently listed as one of Fast Company’s Design Companies of the Year, made its name designing for companies like Slack, Uber, Pitch, Instacart, and Headspace. The team continues to leave its mark across emerging startups and household names such as Suno, Midjourney, Nike, Pika, and The Atlantic.

Sara is also an advisor to Metalab's Venture Fund companies helping early-stage start-ups become the next unicorn. She lives on the island of Oahu, Hawaii with her family including two rescue fur babies.

Follow Sara and Metalab on Linkedinhttps://www.linkedin.com/in/saraviennahttps://www.linkedin.com/company/metalab

@sravienna and @metalab on most other socials

And make sure to read her article which was the inspiration of this talk:https://www.metalab.com/blog/designing-new-relationship-with-ai 

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This episode was hosted by:

Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Head of product strategy, PH1 Research)https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ 

Brittany Hobbs (VP Insights, Huge) https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/

Please make sure to subscribe to our Substack to never miss an episode. On the Design of AI substack you’ll also receive more strategic insights and recommended products. We’ll also be announcing events soon too. https://designofai.substack.com/ 

Every product, design, and business decision we make is powered by insights. Will AI help all of us to make better strategic decisions?

For two decades David Boyle has been working with the biggest brands in the world to deliver insights that inform global strategies. We discuss the future of insights & strategy in the era of AI.

➤ AI is transforming the speed and impact of research

➤ How we’re getting better answers and more informed strategies

➤ Orgs must foster a cultural shift to take advantage of AI

➤ AI can be confidently, persuasively wrong

➤ Experts will always be critical to evaluating AI outputs

Please make sure to subscribe to our Substack to get the most important strategy, news, and training insights: ⁠https://designofai.substack.com/⁠ 

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David Boyle helps organisations grow by using AI and by finding hidden truths in their audience data. He's passionate about audience insight, business strategy and making work better, quicker and happier through the thoughtful application of language models like ChatGPT.

David built the insight team that transformed EMI Music to put audiences at the heart of decisions. He went on to leadership roles at BBC, MasterClass and Harrods before founding Audience Strategies in 2019. 

David is the lead author of the PROMPT series of books, which offer practical guides for using language models across different industries. Drawing on his background in analytics and strategy, he's become a leading voice in how organisations can harness AI's potential while avoiding its pitfalls. He sees language models as an "electric bike for the mind" - a powerful multiplier that still needs human steering.

Having worked with dozens of the world's leading companies, David brings a grounded perspective on AI adoption. He advocates for a balanced approach: language models can achieve about 70% of traditional research quality in a fraction of the time and cost, but outputs should always be verified. His "4P's" framework emphasises that effective AI use requires preparation, process, and proficiency - not just prompts.

Follow him: https://www.linkedin.com/in/beglen/

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Thank you for listening to the Design of AI podcast. 

Our mission is to improve how AI is leveraged. We interview leaders at the forefront of AI to unpack strategies and lessons for designers and product teams.

If you like learning about AI and how to grow your career, make sure to follow us on your fave podcasting app. It really helps us if you leave reviews.

This episode was hosted by:

Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Head of product strategy, PH1 Research) https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ 

Brittany Hobbs (VP Insights, Huge)  https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/

We’re two years into the GenAI era and there’s still plenty of uncertainty about how to best leverage AI to improve existing products. Ioana Teleanu will walk through her advice to designers and product teams looking to improve existing products. She was the lead designer, AI at Miro and runs the AI Goodies newsletter.

This is episode 24 and we’re discussing how to leverage AI to improve the UX of existing products

➤ Challenges and opportunities for designers

➤ Focus on solving real problems with AI solutions

➤ Understanding intent is crucial for effective AI

➤ The risk of ruining a good product by forcing AI on users

➤ Deciding where and how to start leveraging AI in your product

Ioana Teleanu is the founder of AI-R Studio, a boutique design agency specializing in AI design. In the past, she shaped the experience of Miro AI as their Lead Product Designer for AI and UiPath’s Clipboard AI, which was granted Time Magazine's 'Best Invention of 2023' award. 

She's the creator and instructor of one of the most successful courses on AI for Designers. She also helps designers navigate the transformation of the AI x Design space on her social channels UX Goodies, as well as through the AI Goodies newsletter.

Add her on LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ioanateleanu/

Follow her newsletter & course: https://zaap.bio/uxgoodies

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This episode was sponsored by PH1, a research & strategy consultancy that has been working with Spotify, Microsoft, Dell, National Football League, Telus, and various educational, health, and public sector orgs to map the future of their organizations.

PH1 specializes in researching, conceptualizing, aligning, and testing how to improve your products and service.

https://ph1.ca

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Our mission is to improve how AI is leveraged. We interview leaders at the forefront of AI to unpack strategies and lessons for designers and product teams.

If you like learning about AI and how to grow your career, make sure to follow us on your fave podcasting app. It really helps us if you leave reviews.

To get more AI and career resources, subscribe on Substack: https://designofai.substack.com/ 

---------

This episode was hosted by:

Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Head of product strategy, PH1 Research)  https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ 

Brittany Hobbs (VP Insights, Huge)  https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/

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Questions, pitches, or partnerships? info@designof.ai

Healthcare is crucial. Yet healthcare systems in North America are falling behind. That’s why healthcare is constantly highlighted as the industry that will most benefit from AI. What can other industries learn from healthcare’s past and future implementations of AI?

Our guest is Spencer Dorn, the Vice Chair and Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina.

This is episode 23 and we’re exploring the challenges of implementing AI in complex industries:

➤ The successes and failures of AI in healthcare

➤ Adopting AI is very difficult & requires incentives

➤ Risk of AI inundating users with too much information

➤ Risk of undervaluing the importance of relationships

➤ Lessons for teams designing AI products in other industries

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Spencer Dorn, MD, MPH, MHA is Vice Chair and Professor of Medicine at the University of North Carolina. Drawing on his experiences as a practicing gastroenterologist, physician leader, clinical administrator, informatics physician, and academic, Spencer is particularly interested in how digital technologies are reshaping healthcare.

He is a contributor to Forbes and one of LinkedIn’s Top Voices speaking on Healthcare + Innovation.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/spencerdorn/

https://www.med.unc.edu/medicine/gi/people/spencer-d-dorn-md-mph-mha/

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How much value are you getting from using GenAI?

Please take five minutes to complete our survey. We want to understand how & why you use AI. And we’re also starting to build a knowledge base of how professionals are getting the most value from AI so we can publish it in a report.

Find the survey link on our website http://designof.ai 

It will also help inform what topics the podcast will cover in 2025.

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To get more AI strategy and career resources, subscribe on Substack: https://designofai.substack.com/ 

-----------

This episode was hosted by:

Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Head of product strategy, PH1 Research) 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ 

Brittany Hobbs (VP Insights, Huge) 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/

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If you have comments, questions, or speaker/sponsor requests, email us info@designof.ai

After our recent episodes about how AI will change design, we thought it was time to hear about how AI is changing business. Our guest is Lisa Weaver-Lambert, the author of The AI Value Playbook: How to make AI work in the real world. She interviewed the leaders of 35 businesses who were early adopters of AI to define where it delivers the most value and how they’ve had to shift their strategies.

This is episode 22 and the author of The AI Value Playbook will be sharing:

➤ First-hand lessons from executives about how AI delivers value

➤ The characteristics of a successful or poor AI strategy

➤ Why some businesses and structures are better set up for success

➤ Challenges legacy orgs face incorporating AI and getting value

➤ The future of jobs in a world that will be changed by AI

How much value are you getting from using GenAI?

Please take five minutes to complete our survey. We want to understand how & why you use AI. And we’re also starting to build a knowledge base of how professionals are getting the most value from AI so we can publish it in a report.

Complete the survey here: https://tally.so/r/3EBdOr

It will also help inform what topics the podcast will cover in 2025.

Thank you for listening to the Design of AI podcast. We interview AI leaders and discuss the latest innovations. We help teams learn how to leverage AI to reshape their industries.

If you like learning about AI and how to grow your career, make sure to follow us on your fave podcasting app. It really helps us if you leave reviews.

To get more AI and career resources, subscribe on Substack: https://designofai.substack.com/ 

Lisa is a published author on AI, specialising in advising private equity firms on due diligence and value creation. She serves on the Advisory Board of Lumenalta, a custom software development company. With experience in capital markets, working at Microsoft, and Accenture, she has a proven track record of partnering with businesses to develop operational improvement with data and AI strategies and drive value across various sectors. In addition, she has held executive line management positions working with some of the world’s best-known brands and served on various boards, earning her recognition as a leading woman in technology. Recognising the transformative potential of AI, Lisa’s mission is to equip non-technical leaders with the knowledge and confidence to leverage AI for their organisations. Her recent book, "The AI Value Playbook," provides an essential handbook for non-technical business leaders to quickly formulate a perspective on how to leverage AI.

Follow her on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/lisa-weaver-lambert-9568912/

Book overview: 

The AI Value Playbook draws on conversations and case studies with leading practitioners who share their first-hand experiences successfully driving AI value and pathways for progress. The result is an essential handbook for non-technical business leaders to quickly formulate a perspective on how to leverage AI.

• ➤ Understand machine learning and generative AI terminology, concepts, and the AI technology stack.

• ➤ Learn from diverse real-world case studies narrated by business leaders in their own voice. 

➤ Apply a value-driven approach to AI applications across multiple business sectors.

Find the book on Amazon and other retailers: https://www.amazon.com/-/es/Lisa-Weaver-Lambert/dp/1835461751

This episode was hosted by:

Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Head of product strategy, PH1 Research) 

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/⁠ 

Brittany Hobbs (VP Insights, Huge) 

⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/⁠

Product teams are under pressure to deliver value from AI immediately and most are failing to achieve monetization. But when large enterprises want to deliver industry-changing products, they go to IDEO, the most prestigious design consultancy in the world. 

Our guest is Savannah Kunovsky, Managing Director of IDEO’s Emerging Technology Lab. Savannah brings businesses from today’s realities to the worlds we’ll live in next.

In this episode you’ll learn:

➤ IDEO’s approach to leading the most challenging innovation projects

➤ How to increase the likelihood of your AI product’s success

➤ The power of identifying audiences for your product

➤ Importance of unlocking AI’s intelligence AND human potential

➤ How artists are leading our envisioning about the future of AI

This episode is the perfect inspiration for designers, product managers, researchers, and founders who want to deliver transformative experiences. 

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Thank you for listening to the Design of AI podcast.

We provide secrets for building AI products that customers value.

If you have guests you want to recommend or need help with your product, contact us ⁠info@designof.ai⁠ 

Remember to follow us on your fave podcasting app. It also really helps us if you leave reviews.

—----------

If you value his type of product & career advice follow our Substack newsletter

This episode was brought to you by PH1 Research specialized in rapid research to improve product decisions about your next AI release. Validate use cases, test concepts, prove monetization opportunities.
Email info@ph1.ca and mention the Design of AI podcast to get a 15% discount.

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This episode was hosted by:

Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Principal Strategist PH1 Research) ⁠https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/⁠ 

And if you want more AI strategy & research content, subscribe to our substack newsletter at ⁠https://designofai.substack.com/⁠ 

Follow us here:

⁠⁠Spotify⁠ https://open.spotify.com/show/3O11vQKPpKI5ZlJhdRGwnf

⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠ ⁠https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/design-of-ai-product-strategy-innovation-career-growth/id1734499859⁠  ⁠YouTube⁠⁠ ⁠https://www.youtube.com/@DesignofAI⁠

What if AI had emotional intelligence? What if it could interpret our non-verbal cues?

Try to use a chat bot and all of this sounds far-fetched right now, but there are startups and researchers developing specialized models that add emotional intelligence to AI-powered products.

In this episode we had a discussion with the founder of Interhuman AI about use cases and possibilities of this new intelligence layer. She believes that it will transform every business’ ability to deliver sales and support products that are finally impactful. Also, that emotional intelligence capabilities will transform how employees are trained and get ongoing feedback.

In this episode, you'll learn: 

➤ Why the next frontier of AI will be interpreting human behaviour

➤ The possibilities & use cases of emotional AI technologies

➤ The importance of building specialized models in a world dominated by OpenAI, Google, Meta, and Anthropic 

Our guest is Paula Petcu, CEO and co-founder of Interhuman AI. Interhuman AI develops the social intelligence layer for AI applications. She has been working at the intersection of health and technology for the past 10 years. https://www.linkedin.com/in/paulapetcu/ 

 

Thank you for listening to the Design of AI podcast. We provide secrets for how to build AI products that customers value. 

Please follow us on your favorite podcasting apps and make sure to leave a review if you like this type of product & career advice. 

This episode was brought to you by PH1 Research, specialized in rapid research to improve product decisions about your next AI release. Validate use cases, test concepts, prove monetization opportunities.

This episode was hosted by 

Brittany Hobbs https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/ 
Arpy Dragffy Guerrero https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/

What does it mean when the largest consumer tech company in the world says AI isn't so intelligent after all?

Over the last week Apple has dominated AI headlines and not for the reason you'd expect. Their research team released a paper called "The Illusion of Thinking." (Authors: Parshin Shojaee, Iman Mirzadeh, Keivan Alizadeh, Maxwell Horton, Samy Bengio, Mehrdad Farajtabar)

This quote from Gary Marcus' newsletter sums it best:

"What the Apple paper shows, most fundamentally, regardless of how you define AGI, is that LLMs are no substitute for good well-specified conventional algorithms. (They also can’t play chess as well as conventional algorithms, can’t fold proteins like special-purpose neurosymbolic hybrids, can’t run databases as well as conventional databases, etc.)

In the best case (not always reached) they can write python code, supplementing their own weaknesses with outside symbolic code, but even this is not reliable. What this means for business and society is that you can’t simply drop o3 or Claude into some complex problem and expect it to work reliably."

This was then followed by Apple's developer event this week where Apple continued to under-deliver on market expectations of AI releases in iOS and beyond.

In this episode we explore what it means for builders and business users of AI that Apple is playing the spoiler role compared to OpenAI and Google's role as hypers of GAI.

We present a path forward for leveraging the increasing task accuracy and task accuracy of the latest LLMs. And we discuss the risk of the illusion of reasoning within LLMs as it relates to employers looking to reduce headcount.

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Thank you for listening to the Design of AI podcast.

We provide secrets for building AI products that customers value.

If you have guests you want to recommend or need help with your product, contact us info@designof.ai 

Remember to follow us on your fave podcasting app. It also really helps us if you leave reviews.

—----------

This episode was hosted by:

Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Principal Strategist PH1 Research) https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ 

Brittany Hobbs (VP Insights, Huge)  https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/

And if you want more AI strategy & research content, subscribe to our substack newsletter at https://designofai.substack.com/ 

This episode is brought to you by PH1 Research, a research & strategy consultancy specialized in mapping the future of your business & product. Get more info at PH1.ca 

Follow us here:

⁠Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3O11vQKPpKI5ZlJhdRGwnf

⁠Apple Podcasts⁠ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/design-of-ai-product-strategy-innovation-career-growth/id1734499859
 YouTube⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@DesignofAI

There’s no doubt, AI will be able to automate product, marketing, and sales workflows. But GenAI’s greatest achievement could be expanding our creative potential. 

In this episode you’ll learn about:

➤ How AI’s ability to understand context and intent will change everything

➤ That communicating via visuals instead of words will innovate decision-making

➤ The differences in working in a design-led culture vs. production line orgs

➤ Preparing for a world of AI as a creative partner & provocateur 

➤ What creative AI products can do today and in the near future

Our guest, Tuhin Kumar, has worked on the bleeding edge of user experience design his entire career, creating some of the most memorable interactions on Facebook, Airbnb, and Apple’s platforms. 

In this conversation we explore why he decided to lead design at Luma, a GenAI platform challenging our perspectives on the creative potential of video and images. As we enter an era where anyone can create average assets, we must find new ways of pushing the boundaries of creativity. Pioneers, like Tuhin, are building a future that equips product teams and creatives across all industries with new capabilities to innovate how we design.

Thank you for listening to the Design of AI podcast.

We provide secrets for building AI products that customers love.

If you have guests you want to recommend or need help with your product, contact us info@designof.ai 

Remember to follow us on your fave podcasting app. It also really helps us if you leave reviews.

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Tuhin Kumar has shaped everything from Apple’s macOS features to Airbnb’s global design system and was the first designer at LinkedIn Pulse.  At NVIDIA-backed Luma an AI video generator with 25M+ users that many find better than Sora, he’s at the forefront of AI's impact on reshaping design—not just as a tool, but as a creative collaborator—crafting modular systems that can adapt to rapid research breakthroughs. Tuhin’s work blurs the line between art and utility and how creative vision can thrive alongside tech.

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This episode was hosted by:

Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Principal Strategist PH1 Research) https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ 

And if you want more AI strategy & research content, subscribe to our substack newsletter at https://designofai.substack.com/ 

This episode is brought to you by PH1 Research, a research & strategy consultancy specialized in mapping the future of your business & product. Get more info at PH1.ca

Follow us here:

⁠Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3O11vQKPpKI5ZlJhdRGwnf

⁠Apple Podcasts⁠ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/design-of-ai-product-strategy-innovation-career-growth/id1734499859

 YouTube⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@DesignofAI 

We have two special guests. Dr. Emily M. Bender & Dr. Alex Hanna, the authors of The AI Con: How to Fight Big Tech’s Hype and Create the Future We Want. This review best captures why you should read this book:

A smart, incisive look at the technologies sold as artificial intelligence, the drawbacks and pitfalls of technology sold under this banner, and why it’s crucial to recognize the many ways in which AI hype covers for a small set of power-hungry actors at work and in the world.

Get more info about the book at https://thecon.ai

This episode challenges the hype around AI and is a critical conversation for anyone working in technology or planning to leverage AI. In this episode we cover:

➤ Exaggerations and limitations of AI & LLMs

➤ Until we know how LLMs are trained, we can’t trust them

➤ Focussing on assisting users, not replacing workers

➤ Workers must stand up and  resist AI automation

➤ The damage caused by AI hype boosters & doomers

Dr. Emily M. Bender is a Professor of Linguistics at the University of Washington where she is also the Faculty Director of the Computational Linguistics Master of Science program and affiliate faculty in the School of Computer Science and Engineering and the Information School. In 2023, she was included in the inaugural Time 100 list of the most influential people in AI. She is frequently consulted by policymakers, from municipal officials to the federal government to the United Nations, for insight into how to understand so-called AI technologies.

Dr. Alex Hanna is Director of Research at the Distributed AI Research Institute (DAIR) and a Lecturer in the School of Information at the University of California Berkeley. She is an outspoken critic of the tech industry, a proponent of community-based uses of technology, and a highly sought-after speaker and expert who has been featured across the media, including articles in the Washington Post, Financial Times, The Atlantic, and Time.

Dr Bender & Dr. Hanna are also the hosts of the Mystery AI Hype Theater 3000 podcast, where they take on the latest news from AI and technology.

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Thank you for listening to the Design of AI podcast. 

We provide a pragmatic and practical deep dive into what AI can do and how it is transforming industries. We help designers, researchers, and strategists excel in a rapidly changing future.

Remember to follow us on your fave podcasting app. It also really helps us if you leave reviews.

This episode was hosted by:

Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Principal Strategist PH1 Research) https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ 

And if you want more AI strategy & research content, subscribe to our substack newsletter at https://designofai.substack.com/ 

Thanks for listening to the Design of AI podcast

If you like this episode please follow us on your podcast app and leave us a review.

This episode is brought to you by PH1 Research, a research & strategy consultancy specialized in mapping the future of your business & product. Get more info at ph1.ca

Follow us here:

⁠Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3O11vQKPpKI5ZlJhdRGwnf

⁠Apple Podcasts⁠ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/design-of-ai-product-strategy-innovation-career-growth/id1734499859

 YouTube⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@DesignofAI

Designers are overwhelmed with too many AI products that promise to help them simplify workflows and solve the last mile of design-to-code. With the announcements of Figma Site and Figma Make at the the Config conference, the amount of options to consider has increased even more. 

In this episode you’ll discover:

1. Ranking of which AI design-to-code products are recommended by a UX expert

2. Assessment of whether designers should rely on these tools

3. Learn more hacks on how to get better results from ChatGPT, Claude, and Manus, including deep research versions

This episode will help designers, product managers, developers, and anyone working with tech to elevate their design and production capabilities by leveraging the latest AI capabilities and the "Vibe-coding" trend.

Our special guest is Roger Wong. He is a forward-thinking design leader with extensive experience in cultivating brand loyalty and enhancing customer experiences for prominent tech companies like Apple, Microsoft, Cisco, and Intel. His career spans over two decades during which he founded Wong.Digital, led design at two startups, and managed significant creative teams, notably for Samsung Mobile. His passion for innovation is demonstrated through his cofounding of Transported VR, a pioneering venture in virtual reality real estate, and his side project of developing an AI tool to assist designers in crafting brand strategies. His contributions to the design field have been recognized by Communication Arts, Graphis, One Show, Clio Awards, and Cannes Lions. Holding a BFA in graphic design from the California College of the Arts, he has also contributed to academics as a professor and advisory board member at San Diego City College.

He writes about design, AI, UX, and technology on his blog: https://rogerwong.me

Read his full analysis of the design-to-code AI products: https://rogerwong.me/2025/04/beyond-the-prompt 

What you need to know about this evaluation:

“If you're wanting to close the design-to-code gap, consider Subframe. While AI is part of its feature set, it is not the only selling point. In my opinion, its strength is in being able to design with and manipulate React components visually.

Finally, for quick ideas and prototypes, check out v0. Because the output is mostly unstyled, it makes for great wireframe-like prototypes that are shareable. By playing with working prototypes, it's very quickly apparent what you should incorporate into your designs.“

This episode was hosted by:

Brittany Hobbs is VP of Insights at Huge, a global design and technology consultancy. I lead research initiatives to build the next generation of consumer and business applications for the world’s biggest brands. My focus is on humanizing technology at scale, often leveraging AI to discover breakthroughs in human-computer interaction.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/ 

Arpy Dragffy Guerrero is the Founder & Principal Strategist at PH1 Research. He researches and maps how organizations should leverage emerging technologies to improve products and services. By combining behavioral science and service design methods with UX strategy, he won clients such as Spotify, Microsoft, Mozilla, the National Football League, and dozens more across the private and public sectors.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ 

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Thank you for listening to the Design of AI podcast. 

We provide a pragmatic and practical deep dive into what AI can do and how it is transforming industries. We help designers, researchers, and product managers excel in a rapidly changing future.

If you find this strategic content helpful, make sure to follow us on your fave podcasting app. It really helps us if you leave reviews.

Follow us here:

⁠Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/3O11vQKPpKI5ZlJhdRGwnf

⁠Apple Podcasts⁠ https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/design-of-ai-product-strategy-innovation-career-growth/id1734499859
 YouTube⁠ https://www.youtube.com/@DesignofAI

Employers and the media are pressuring us to adopt AI quickly. But overreliance on large language models poses huge risks. Not only is GenAI highly likely to make mistakes, we’re putting the entire data set of our businesses at risk if we take AI results as immediate truth.

In this episode we discuss and debate the risks and remedies for businesses rushing to adopt AI for core work flows and services. Listen to this episode to learn about:

➤ The impact of time pressure on teams on production & quality

➤ Risks of over reliance on technology that’s frequently incorrect

➤ Importance of focused use cases and training data

➤ Recognizing the importance of expertise & critical analysis

➤ Pinpointing how to best leverage AI to improve workflows

Today we’re trying out a new format which we plan to include between quest episodes from time to time. This allows us to share our own experience as consultants and practitioners, and to bring together learnings across multiple interviews. If you want to see more episodes like this,please reach out and let us know.

Brittany Hobbs is VP of Insights at Huge, a global design and technology consultancy. I lead research initiatives to build the next generation of consumer and business applications for the world’s biggest brands. My focus is on humanizing technology at scale, often leveraging AI to discover breakthroughs in human-computer interaction.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/brittanyhobbs/ 

My co-host is Arpy Dragffy Guerrero. He is the Founder & Principal Strategist at PH1 Research. He researches and maps how organizations should leverage emerging technologies to improve products and services. By combining behavioral science and service design methods with UX strategy, he won clients such as Spotify, Microsoft, Mozilla, the National Football League, and dozens more across the private and public sectors.

https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ 

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Thank you for listening to the Design of AI podcast. 

We provide a pragmatic and practical deep dive into what AI can do and how it is transforming industries. We help designers, researchers, and product managers excel in a rapidly changing future.

If you find this strategic content helpful, make sure to follow us on your fave podcasting app. It really helps us if you leave reviews.

Follow us here:

Spotify | Apple Podcasts | YouTube

Tell us about your AI product experiences:

Go to https://designof.ai to share your AI product recommendations and product ratings.

Please make sure to subscribe to our Substack to never miss an episode. On the Design of AI substack you’ll also receive more strategic insights and recommended products.  https://designofai.substack.com/ 

AI is changing how we design and the types of products we build. 

It’s still unclear exactly what the future of design looks like, but architecture reveals important lessons about how AI will transform the creative process and how it can improve the efficiency of major development projects. 

Matt Krissel, the Co-Founder of the Built Environment Futures Council, joins us to discuss how AI is disrupting architecture and lessons for digital product teams. He really struck powerful points many times during our conversation about questioning the role of time and permanence in a world when we want more, faster.

We covered a lot of topics:

➤ Flipping the creative process on its head

➤ Incremental growth is fine but let’s reimagine processes

➤ What should we be doing with more productivity?

➤ Getting punch-drunk on complexity & novelty

➤ The value of modelling complex project operations

Matthew is a fellow of the American Institute of Architects and a principal at Perkins&Will, a global, interdisciplinary architecture and design firm. For over two decades, he has led transformative architectural projects across North America and internationally. His portfolio ranges from iconic, institution-defining buildings to small homes with big ideas.

Drawing from his extensive work and deep interest in design and technology, Matthew co-founded the Built Environment Futures Council (BEFC) in 2023. This diverse national group of designers and builders works to advance the discourse and opportunities for design, technology, and artificial intelligence in architecture and construction. He is also an adjunct faculty member at the Carnegie Mellon School of Architecture, where he works to help shape the next generation of design leaders.

Follow him and his work: 

https://www.linkedin.com/in/matthew-krissel

https://www.thebefc.org/ 

https://www.creativelab3.com/matthew 

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Thank you for listening to the Design of AI podcast. 

We provide a pragmatic and practical deep dive into what AI can do and how it is transforming industries. We help designers, researchers, and product managers excel in a rapidly changing future.

If you find this strategic content helpful, make sure to follow us on your fave podcasting app. It really helps us if you leave reviews.

Go to https://designof.ai to share your AI product recommendations and product ratings.

This episode was hosted by:

Arpy Dragffy Guerrero (Founder & Principal Strategist PH1 Research) https://www.linkedin.com/in/adragffy/ 

Please make sure to subscribe to our Substack to never miss an episode. On the Design of AI substack you’ll also receive more strategic insights and recommended products.  https://designofai.substack.com/