During her QCon London keynote, Savannah Kunovsky, managing director of emerging technologies at IDEO, discussed how design thinking can ensure that the products we build are technically and genuinely impactful. She also discussed how we can use Gen AI to assist people in being more connected and adapting their interactions to their users’ needs.
She started her presentation by defining design, underlying that it’s more than user interfaces, user experience, or even how a piece of hardware looks: “Collectively, design is about how things work. Anything and everything is designed.” Usually, during significant technology shifts—like AI—business leaders miss the actual needs of their targeted audience as they focus just on technology. This leads to misused or ignored products.
Kunovsky: The new map of the [technology] world is being drawn. Right now. […] We, the engineers, are the next designers, and the best moment to act is now. […] The future has crept in, and the world was so chaotic that we haven’t paused to face this fact…
She enumerated some of the contemporary technological innovations that seemed pure SF not too long ago (human-brain interaction, mobile phones that have more computing power than the first space mission or virtual reality glasses) just before she shared multiple stories of how design “has historically drawn the map of the out shared technological future”. Probably the most impactful one was the story of how IDEO and Steve Jobs envisioned the mouse for Apple’s first personal computer.
She considers the current moment of interacting with Gen AI an “awkward” one, as it is influenced by previous ways of interacting with technology. Usually, its evolution is to a moment when the technology gets “really good.”
To get inspiration on how to interact with AI, Kunnovsky and her team draw inspiration from multiple sources like movies and the calm tech movement, but also interview those that will be the most impacted by the technology choices: youth – especially Gen Z. This generation was over-saturated by technology, especially during the pandemic when they needed to use technology for both school and social engagement: social listening, social media scrapping, design provocations and co-creation sessions.
To understand how users would interact with AI products, they imagined highly speculative and provocative products, ranging from AI friends and passion coaches to talking pants (clothing that allows users to ask environmentally concerning questions). The outcome of that experiment was a set of design principles to guide future product shaping.
- Deepen connections, don’t close them down – Based on the “Passion Coach”, they concluded that while Gen Z appreciates the efficiency enabled by AI, they don’t want it to replace human connections. Design AI tools that enhance collaboration and strengthen relationships rather than isolating users or eliminating meaningful human interactions.
- Honour the messiness of being human – Gen Z grew up seeing the negative mental health impacts of “perfect” social media portrayals. They explicitly don’t want AI to create unrealistically perfect experiences or outcomes. They value authentic experiences—even difficult ones—that allow them to build their intuition and grow (“I want to go on a bad date or a terrible vacation.”)
- Focus on genuine improvement, not replacement. Kunovsky points to an experiment where her team worked with teachers to enhance learning. They aimed to help teachers spend less time grading and more time connecting with students or helping students find their voice rather than writing for them.
- Enable personalization with boundaries—Gen Z wants tools that are personalised to their needs but maintain appropriate boundaries. They value AI that adapts to them while preserving their sense of agency and authenticity.
- Create tools that reflect their values – Gen Z is described as the first generation whose values are more important than brand loyalty when making purchasing decisions. They want AI systems that align with and help them express their values.
These principles suggest that designing AI for Gen Z requires a human-centred approach that prioritizes authentic connection, embraces imperfection, and enhances rather than replaces human capabilities and experiences.
She also described how her team used generative AI to make the designing phase more rigorous and faster. From Midjourney-generated pictures visualized through vision master glasses to designing videos and photographs during a wooden toy design project, her team experimented in various atypical fields, allowing designers and their beneficiaries to envision a future product easily.
Kunovsky concluded by stating that they are aware of the ethical and environmental implications of using AI in their design process but still believe that groups of technologists who use design thinking continuously, not only at the later phases of the process, can make a difference in how future AI interactions will look. More than that, by ensuring appropriate and diverse representation of all groups affected by the products, we can provide creativity and purposeful interactions can move society forward.
