Summary: UX professionals must seize the AI career imperative or become irrelevant. Guidance from a seasoned UX veteran who witnessed the game-changing impact of the dot-com boom. Permalink for this article: https://www.uxtigers.com/post/ux-urgency-ai
I appreciate that you are urgently calling upon UX professionals in this emerging field. Many UX professionals I know are already exploring the AI field and are seeking the right opportunity to really understand how to apply their skills. There is an urgent need to guide and develop UX professionals in applied AI and ML. Doing so will help us shape this technology in the right way and ensure that it benefits users from an experiential standpoint, with a focus on safety and responsibility. In my opinion, literacy in ML and AI should be a must-have skill, even more so than programming has been touted to be in the past decade. Before people begin programming and building AI applications, it is crucial that they understand what needs to be programmed and what data needs to be fed to the machine. As user experience professionals, we have a big responsibility in this area. It is concerning that we are not making more noise about this yet.
The UX workforce and corporate realities therein are not accurately reflected in this article. UX professionals are far from complacent. This introductory statement makes your research naive of the corporate realities UX professionals face when attempting to advance a new technology. If the author truly has worked in the field, the article would state that only thin slices of invention and creativity surface from the efforts of UX practitioners. Corporate management in the largest institutions has, as it often does, put a heavy blanket on progress. Laying progress on the doorstep of a foot soldier? Glass house.
This was feasible 30 years ago when I was young(ish)...
@jacobnielsen Your perpetual youthful spirit, evidenced by your relatable communication, is truly admirable in my humble opinion. Thank you so much for sharing this enlightening post, and your impassioned plea to rally and take action immediately reflects your unwavering commitment and love for our shared endeavor. Your consistent desire to pass the torch to capable successors does not go unnoticed. Your contributions are genuinely valued and deeply appreciated.
I love the call to action and highlighting the urgency for UX designers to expand their horizons and get comfortable with AI. It's the old vs. the new. Adapt, or stay behind and get squashed.
Thank you, Jakob! I really appreciate your insights and guidance on this topic. The reason I transitioned from writing to design 4 years ago was because of AI. Somehow, I knew that AI would require human supervision and that UX designers would play a critical role in it. UX designers need to help companies balance the users' needs, rather than solely focusing on generating revenue through AI. When the algorithm is set, it will be too late. I know that this is the direction I need to pursue.
Currently, I am still figuring out how to gain hands-on experience in AI UX. Most product teams nowadays only seem to require AI engineers and sometimes a PM. It will require a collective effort from the UX designer community to make them realize the importance of having UX designers to supervise the machine.
You are advocating the adoption of piracy. You are advocating the execution in cold blood of entire creative industries. You are legitimizing the intellectual property rights heist of the century. For gods sake man, wake up.
UX Needs a Sense of Urgency About AI
I appreciate that you are urgently calling upon UX professionals in this emerging field. Many UX professionals I know are already exploring the AI field and are seeking the right opportunity to really understand how to apply their skills. There is an urgent need to guide and develop UX professionals in applied AI and ML. Doing so will help us shape this technology in the right way and ensure that it benefits users from an experiential standpoint, with a focus on safety and responsibility. In my opinion, literacy in ML and AI should be a must-have skill, even more so than programming has been touted to be in the past decade. Before people begin programming and building AI applications, it is crucial that they understand what needs to be programmed and what data needs to be fed to the machine. As user experience professionals, we have a big responsibility in this area. It is concerning that we are not making more noise about this yet.
The UX workforce and corporate realities therein are not accurately reflected in this article. UX professionals are far from complacent. This introductory statement makes your research naive of the corporate realities UX professionals face when attempting to advance a new technology. If the author truly has worked in the field, the article would state that only thin slices of invention and creativity surface from the efforts of UX practitioners. Corporate management in the largest institutions has, as it often does, put a heavy blanket on progress. Laying progress on the doorstep of a foot soldier? Glass house.
This was feasible 30 years ago when I was young(ish)...
@jacobnielsen Your perpetual youthful spirit, evidenced by your relatable communication, is truly admirable in my humble opinion. Thank you so much for sharing this enlightening post, and your impassioned plea to rally and take action immediately reflects your unwavering commitment and love for our shared endeavor. Your consistent desire to pass the torch to capable successors does not go unnoticed. Your contributions are genuinely valued and deeply appreciated.
I love the call to action and highlighting the urgency for UX designers to expand their horizons and get comfortable with AI. It's the old vs. the new. Adapt, or stay behind and get squashed.
Thank you, Jakob! I really appreciate your insights and guidance on this topic. The reason I transitioned from writing to design 4 years ago was because of AI. Somehow, I knew that AI would require human supervision and that UX designers would play a critical role in it. UX designers need to help companies balance the users' needs, rather than solely focusing on generating revenue through AI. When the algorithm is set, it will be too late. I know that this is the direction I need to pursue.
Currently, I am still figuring out how to gain hands-on experience in AI UX. Most product teams nowadays only seem to require AI engineers and sometimes a PM. It will require a collective effort from the UX designer community to make them realize the importance of having UX designers to supervise the machine.
You are advocating the adoption of piracy. You are advocating the execution in cold blood of entire creative industries. You are legitimizing the intellectual property rights heist of the century. For gods sake man, wake up.