How AI Is Reshaping the Way We Design

There was a time—not long ago—when designing user experiences felt like mapping a clear, linear path. You’d chart the journey from Point A to Point B, design each screen, account for a few variables, and guide users step by predictable step. It was clean. It was simple. It made sense.

But that’s no longer the world we’re designing for.

Today, design isn’t about screens—it’s about moments. Moments that are personal, dynamic, and shaped by who the user is, what they need now, what they’ve done before, and the context around them. With AI, those moments aren’t predefined—they’re adaptive, evolving, and often entirely unique.

Every interaction is alive. It shifts, flexes, and responds in real time.

We’re no longer designing a single experience—we’re designing an infinite range of possibilities. And in this age of AI, it’s now more important than ever to establish the right guardrails—to ensure these flexible experiences remain human, intentional, and truly personalized.

Moments, not screens

This shift means letting go of screen-thinking. We’re no longer stitching together static screens into a “user journey.” We’re crafting responsive, contextual moments that can reconfigure themselves based on real-time signals.

These moments are emotional, not just functional. They’re about reducing friction, yes—but also about recognizing need. About knowing when to simplify, when to guide, when to reassure, when to inspire.

And those moments? They’re infinite. You can’t design them all individually—but you can understand the boundaries and build a system that adapts with purpose.

Bespoke now matters more than ever

In this new landscape, we’re not designing for the far ends of the spectrum—edge cases or averages. We’re now designing bespoke experiences, shaped by the real, nuanced situations people find themselves in every day.

It’s no longer enough to define a single flow for a typical “80 percent” user. That typical path no longer exists. Instead, we have to think through very specific, lived moments: a nurse checking vitals between emergencies on a night shift; a parent reordering supplies on a phone with one hand; a remote worker switching between video calls and urgent emails from a noisy café.

These moments aren’t exceptions—they reflect the complex mix of common needs. Each deserves careful, bespoke design.

With AI unlocking endless possibilities, thinking even more bespoke isn’t optional—it’s essential. Every situation is unique, defined by who the user is, what they need now, and their context. Rather than building one-size-fits-all systems, we must lean in deeper to craft truly personal experiences—specific to the individual, every time. This is how AI feels genuinely human.

Now, more than ever, we design deliberately for the personal.

We shape AI around real-world, specific situations and scenarios—not the other way around.

AI can adapt endlessly, but it’s our job to set the boundaries, to guide it with care, and to make every interaction intentional, empathetic, and human.

In this age of AI, design’s responsibility is clear: don’t generalize—go deeper. Move beyond averages. Design from the edges of what’s common. Make every experience truly bespoke.

Designing for the situation

Situational design is about crafting experiences not for one fixed journey, but for the many ways a journey can unfold depending on the moment.

The work now is about identifying the boundaries of the most common user contexts—and designing for those first. What does success look like when the user is confident but needs guidance? When they’re focused but pressed for time? When they’re curious but cautious? When they’re engaged but easily distracted?

Design for these common boundaries, and then zoom out. Patterns will emerge. Those patterns become your design principles. And those principles are what guide the AI.

Once you understand the range of situations, you can map the role of the agent—or agents—within those moments.

Some scenarios may call for a single AI agent to take the lead. Others might require multiple agents collaborating, each playing a distinct part: one surfacing insights, another offering suggestions, a third quietly executing tasks in the background.

By designing around real and personal situations first, you reveal where agents can participate and how they should behave. This helps you establish the rules, behaviors, and tone that LLMs and agentic systems need to embody in each context—creating experiences that feel not just smart, but thoughtful and deeply personal.

Crafting bespoke, situational narratives

Storytelling is key to shaping the feel and behavior of an experience—and getting alignment across the many teams needed to bring it to life.

But now, we’re no longer designing a single flow. We’re designing the rules of engagement. We’re creating responsive systems that know how to show up, no matter what situation the user is in.

And that’s where storytelling has to evolve.

In the past, we’d write one clear narrative per persona—a single journey that mapped their goals from start to finish. But in the age of AI, that’s no longer enough. Now, we need to design multiple, bespoke, situational narratives for the same person, tailored to the context they’re in.

Because context changes everything.

The same user might approach your product one day feeling calm and focused, needing to complete a routine task. The next day, they might be overwhelmed, in a rush, trying to solve something urgent. If we want AI to truly support them, we have to meet them in that moment—not just based on who they are, but where they are, mentally, emotionally, and situationally.

It’s still persona-based storytelling—but now, we’re layering in context, emotion, intent, and time. We ask, “What does this user need right now?” and design for that moment. Then we do it again for the next moment. And the next.

As you design for these varied situations, patterns begin to emerge. You start to see how the AI should adapt—how its tone might shift, when it should guide gently versus act decisively, when it should offer help versus stay out of the way.

These become your design principles.

Your system rules. And over time, they define how the experience behaves at scale.

In this AI-driven world, we have to evolve our methods. We’re not building one ideal journey—we’re crafting a flexible, responsive set of stories that adapt in real time, tuned to each user, each moment, and each need.

Living along the boundaries

If you’re still designing for the “average” user or optimizing only for the happy path—stop. Instead, explore the boundaries of the most common situations for the individual or role. Find the moments of real tension and subtle contrast.

Because once you understand how to support users at these common boundaries—whether they’re focused but rushed, curious but cautious, or confident yet seeking reassurance—you’ll be equipped to serve them in every moment.

Now, with AI shaping so much of the experience, taking a bespoke approach isn’t just smart—it’s essential. The more adaptive and powerful AI becomes, the more important it is that the experience feels human, intentional, and deeply personal.

This means being even more specific about the experience you design. You have to understand the unique contexts, needs, and emotions of each moment and design accordingly.

This is what designing in the age of AI means.

Not crafting a single fixed journey, but authoring a flexible system that knows how to tell the right story at the right time—for the right person.

You’re not designing screens.

You’re crafting moments.

And every moment is a story waiting to be told.

Note: this article was edited from the original post