UX professionals need to adapt or die when it comes to AI (Artificial Intelligence). This may seem a little dramatic – but rapid advancements in AI are reshaping the landscape of user experience design, and professionals need to either get on board and start joining the machines or risk being left behind.  

See AI as your tool, not your replacement  

Those who wield AI as a tool, not a threat, will go further in the UX world. If you’ve not already started implementing AI, one area that you should be using it for right now is within your research and discovery.  

Using AI chatbots, you can instantly ask questions to speed up the entire discovery process. Use it to: 

  • Delve into the daily life of one of your customer personas, detailing their motivations, pain points, and more.  
  • Identify and analyze key competitors, pinpointing their strengths and weaknesses and market gaps where you can excel.  
  • Visualize complex business processes and identify opportunities for optimization. 
  • Brainstorm creative concepts and solutions to help get your own creative ideas flowing.  

Some of the answers you get back might not be perfect, but it’s about using AI to give yourself a headstart. Use your own skills to discern which of these answers are accurate and which need further research, then continue as you would normally with a solid background to get you started.  

Designing better UX experiences needs man and machine  

Having AI fight by your side automates tedious tasks and accelerates the design workflow, freeing designers to focus on strategic thinking, creative problem-solving, and fostering deeper connections with users.  

But as well as saving time, AI also provides a helping hand to create better user experiences by generating multiple design iterations to improve on your existing designs, as well as testing different layouts, typography, and color palette selections.  

Generative AI can also be used to test the simplicity and user-friendliness of your design. Try asking the tools if they can summarize the information on your screen. The results might surprise you – and point out key places where users may stumble.  

Pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with AI  

All of the above is possible with AI in its current state. Soon, UX designers will describe their vision to generative AI tools, which will generate initial designs in minutes. 

Don’t worry though – as technology races ahead, the core principles of design thinking will remain essential. Stakeholder validation, market fit analysis, user testing, and customer feedback will continue to be crucial for creating exceptional user experiences. 

But to really leverage the full power of AI, you need to start taking action and implement AI into your toolkit now.  

Blue Yonder is already very far along in this journey. We already have a set of advanced AI solutions that solve big supply chain data problems. We are building the rest, and I personally cannot wait to see our users’ reactions to the new generative experiences we will release.