As artificial intelligence saturates products and design workflows, the line between “tool” and “co-designer” is blurring. It’s time for UX leaders to dictate the terms - not just react to AI’s momentum.

This talk reframes the evolving relationship: both how UX design shapes AI and how AI is now shaping the practice and products of UX.

On the “UX for AI” front, I’ll tackle the challenge of building legible, humane, and trustworthy AI-powered products. Human-centered AI is more than state-of-the-art models; it’s about interfaces that expose intent and limits, empower users with control, and foreground outcomes that genuinely matter to people - not metrics that matter to models.

The future belongs to designers who can articulate and enforce these terms before AI “ghosts” into every interface.

Turning the lens inward, “UX by AI” explores how generative and predictive AI are transforming the designer’s own toolkit - autogenerating screen flows, copy, and even research insights.

But here’s the mandate: treat AI’s contributions as raw creative material to be critiqued, iterated, and made accountable - not as infallible oracles. The designer’s ethical, critical, and human judgment must remain the final filter.

If we abdicate agency, AI will silently dictate the boundaries of UX - both for our users and our profession. Let’s flip the script:

UX must dictate the terms, not the other way around.

UX should write the rulebook rather than retrofit guardrails.