Sentient Design: AI and the Next Chapter of UX

There are so many twisty contradictions in our experiences with AI and the messages we receive about it. It’s smart, but it’s dumb. It’s here, but it’s yet to come. It’s big, but it’s small. So much opportunity, but so much risk. It’s overhyped, but it’s underestimated. It can do everything, but it can’t seem to do anything.

What does it all mean? Here at Big Medium, a big part of our mission is to help companies make sense of new technologies and apply them in meaningful ways. AI is naturally a big focus right now; we’re doing a lot of AI-related product work with our clients, and a lot of that starts with the question: what does AI mean for us, and what do we do with it?

Tech leaders are pretty sure that AI is a big deal, though. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said earlier this year that AI is “the most profound technology humanity is working on—more profound than fire or electricity or anything that we’ve done in the past.” More profound than fire or electricity! THAT SOUNDS LIKE A PRETTY BIG DEAL.

So, let’s see what kind of profound applications we’re building with this bigger-than-fire technology. We have AI-generated underpants… algorithmic perfume… AI beauty contests… Oral-B’s AI-powered toothbrush… and if you have any lingering doubts about AI’s ability to draw hands, we have AI-generated sign-language manuals.

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