Andrew Ku

The future of design isn't prettier pixels—it's intelligence architecture. Suff Syed's latest piece challenges everything we know: designers must move from the surface to the substrate—from interfaces to the intelligence layer beneath. We've spent careers perfecting visual design, following leaders like Jony Ive. However, in the Era of Intelligence, we need to look toward different leaders—such as Demis Hassabis—who design systems that think, not just look beautiful. Here's the shift: The skills that got us here are no longer sufficient. As AI becomes the new operating system, designers who understand agentic AI, proactive systems, and personal intelligence will shape the next decade. Why now: 96% of designers are self-teaching AI skills. Startups are adopting AI at twice the rate of enterprises. The window to become an outlier is closing. This isn't about AI replacing designers—it's about designers who understand AI replacing those who don't. My challenge: Stop treating AI as just another tool. Start learning how these systems work intimately. Move from decorating surfaces to architecting intelligence. Read Suff's full article: https://lnkd.in/dtfG4dGn Will you be designing with AI or watching from the sidelines? #Design #AI #UXDesign #ProductDesign #DesignLeadership

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I’ve sat on both sides of the senior IC design interview table — first as a hiring manager for six years, and more recently as a candidate. Here are some hard-earned lessons from that experience, along with a few examples from the presentation that helped me land my most recent role. Let me know if any of these lessons resonate, and I'm also curious what's worked well for you in a Staff+ presentation.

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For years, design leadership has been rooted in a familiar rhythm: refine the interface, elevate the craft, ship the next iteration. But the ground is shifting under our feet. Alan Dye leaving Apple to lead Meta’s new AI-focused design studio is more than a career move. It’s a signal of where design leadership is headed next — from polished pixels to the orchestration of intelligent systems. And I think this shift has been building for a while. Design leaders are no longer stewards of screens alone. We’re becoming stewards of behavior. We’re shaping how intelligence shows up for real people in real workflows. That means expanding our craft: - Understanding how AI perceives, interprets, and responds. - Designing workflows where the interface becomes the smallest piece of the experience. - Thinking about failure modes, trust, escalation paths, and recovery states. It’s a new kind of design practice. One where interaction models stretch beyond UI and into environment, context, and intent. AI isn’t replacing design leadership. It’s redefining the battlefield. And the leaders who thrive will be the ones who think beyond surfaces and start designing the systems of intelligence that sit beneath them. https://lnkd.in/g35fcFiU #ProductDesign #DesignLeadership #AIXDesign #FutureOfWork

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This pretty accurately describes how I approached working with LLMs this year. The secret is to treat LLMs like a team mate who you want to collaborate with. Provide context . Be thoughtful in scope. Build great documentation and planning. https://lnkd.in/ekBbbiND

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I am absolutely thrilled to share our latest research at Google, which I believe marks a truly critical inflection point for the future of Human-Computer Interaction. For decades, we’ve lived in a world of static, deterministic software. But what if your interface could actually grow and evolve with you in real-time. Our paper, "Self-Evolving Systems," introduces the concept of Adaptive Generative Interfaces (AGIs) . These aren't just "smart" layouts—they are systems that autonomously expand their own feature sets at runtime based on your intent. The results from our study were nothing short of a profound shift : Massive Usability Leap: Our AGI prototype, achieved an "Excellent" System Usability Scale (SUS) score of 84.38, compared to just 53.96 for the traditional version. Statistical Power: We saw a statistically significant mean difference of 30.42 points (p<0.0001) and a large effect size (d=1.04). This confirms that by slashing the "navigation tax," we can fundamentally transform how people experience software. The era of pre-shipped, fixed features is ending. We are entering the age of System Builders—where designers become the architects of the rules that allow software to self-evolve . I couldn't be more excited about where this is heading! . I'm honored to have collaborated with my incredible team members at Google; Piyush Arora, Wendy Yun, Colby Hawker, and Jaime Sonoda.. Check out the full publication https://lnkd.in/gmVgXZg8 #HCI #Innovation #FutureOfTech #GoogleResearch #GenerativeAI #SelfEvolvingSystems #UXRevolution.

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I have been hearing a lot of buzz about using LLMs for "synthetic user" research. While I haven't personally used this approach, I've consolidated my thoughts on what I believe is fundamentally wrong with it. From my perspective, the two major issues are: The Sycophant Problem: LLMs are modeled to be sycophants, generating ideal outcomes, whereas real users and consumers possess a full spectrum of critical and complex emotions. Missing Human Complexity: LLMs over-generalize, producing shallow results that miss the critical nuances and diverse complexity of human behaviors and emotions. Please check out the blog for more details and I also have links to some studies on this topic. https://lnkd.in/gbSZ4msn #uxresearch #design #genai

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The Design Engineer role has become one of the most quietly influential hires in early-stage AI. They move fast, operate with huge autonomy, and often shape the feel and identity of an AI product long before a dedicated product team exists. And in 2026, the salary ranges, equity expectations, and hiring signals behind this role are more revealing than you might expect. If you’re exploring early-stage roles in 2026, read this first. Access the guide: https://lnkd.in/enq_pTwD  #AI #ArtificialIntelligence #AIEngineer #DesignEngineer #SalaryGuide

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This hit close to home. This quarter we've been actively rethinking our design process. Removing rituals, pulling back on some discovery activities, and prioritizing speed and learning over craft and critique. It can be uncomfortable but it's the right direction. This episode puts a lot of it into words.

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