As AI becomes part of how we learn, work, communicate, and make decisions, one question deserves more attention: Are we designing intelligent systems without fully understanding the humans who use them?

Technology can recognise patterns, generate responses, and personalise experiences. But human behaviour is shaped by emotions, cognitive biases, trust, identity, and context factors that don't always fit neatly into a dataset.

In this session, I bring a counselling psychologist's perspective to the world of AI and technology, exploring how psychological principles can inform more thoughtful, human-centred digital experiences.

We'll explore:

• The psychology of trust: Why people trust, distrust, or over-rely on AI systems.
• Cognitive biases and decision-making: How human assumptions influence interactions with technology.
• Emotional design: Why the way a system communicates can matter as much as what it communicates.
• AI and human identity: How intelligent systems are changing our relationship with knowledge, confidence, and autonomy.
• From insight to implementation: Practical questions developers and product teams can use when designing AI-powered experiences.

Through relatable examples and audience reflection, this session invites developers, designers, and technology leaders to look beyond what AI can do and consider how people experience it.

Attendees will leave with a practical psychological lens for examining trust, communication, user autonomy, and human behaviour in their own AI-powered products.

Because building technology that works is an engineering challenge. Building technology that people can understand, trust, and use responsibly is also a human challenge.