The Real Impact of AI on Service Design / Pablo Fernández Vallejo / Ep. #221
AI won't take over your job...
An 8-year-old girl with AI will!
Don't believe me? Check ou this video which was making the rounds on LinkedIn a while ago.
In the video a young girl coding a Harry Potter quiz game with the help of AI. In a matter of minutes.
It's a funny and striking example of where things are heading – or should I say, where they already are.
It'd be naive to think service design won't be affected.
But the current conversations about AI's impact often lack depth, nuance, and practical examples.
We don't seem to get much further than: "AI is good" or "AI is bad."
What are we even talking about when we say "AI"? We need to unpack it. Go beyond the surface.
Fortunately, our guest for this episode has done some of the heavy lifting for us.
As an educator at one of the leading design institutes, Pablo Fernández Vallejo has to live in the future.
He's always thinking about the skills future professionals will need in 4 years' time when they graduate. And of course, being able to make full use of AI is high on the list right now.
So in this episode, we sit down and talk about big questions like: Do we need to become AI experts ourselves, or should we focus on further developing our critical thinking skills? What are the risks and opportunities of bringing AI into the design process? What are the tasks that we can safely outsource to AI and which ones should we be more careful with.
So, whether you're an AI skeptic or optimist, I feel this conversation will challenge your thinking and help you make more informed decisions moving ahead.
A thought-provoking question in this episode is what will happen to our professional identities when AI starts to blur the boundaries between disciplines. It's not a question of if it will happen, but how quickly.
Curious to hear your thoughts, so make sure to leave a comment on below.
Enjoy and keep making a positive impact.
~ Marc
--- [ 1. GUIDE ] ---
00:00 Welcome to Episode 221
04:00 Grandparents' influence on AI perspective
06:00 Over-represented large language models
08:30 AI with a bias
11:00 Designing at the age of AI
14:00 Current state of designing with AI
17:30 Automation vs. Augmentation
19:30 AI’s Impact on Students
26:30 AI Possibilities vs. Limits
29:00 AI & Expertise Balance
30:00 Calculator analogy
32:30 AI & Service Commoditization
35:00 How AI impacts non-digital services
38:00 AI power dynamics
38:30 Service design for ai
42:30 AI as an active participant
44:30 Gaps in the society
47:15 Questions we should be asking
53:00 Sustainability & AI
55:00 Learning about past mistakes
57:00 Tech development and society conversation
59:30 The future we can build
1:00:40 Resources
1:02:00 Questions to ponder
--- [ 2. LINKS ] ---
- https://www.linkedin.com/in/pablofernandezvallejo
- Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI by Ethan Mollick (Book)
- Pablo's talk on Impact of AI in Service Design
- Pablo's post-SDGC article on the state of the conversation
- https://www.fernandezvallejo.com/
--- [ 3. CIRCLE ] ---
Join our private community for in-house service design professionals.
https://servicedesignshow.com/circle