In the Loop №1: Service Design x AI
➰AIxDesign Monthly Newsletter, July 2020
Every month we send out a curated list of articles and resources on a specific theme within the AI x Design landscape, as well as highlight updates and works from members of the community. Subscribe to receive our monthly newsletter and stay up in the loop with our community!
In this newsletter, we will be exploring the intersection of AI and Service Design — how each domain influences one another and how they can benefit from one another, along with managing expectations when setting up AI projects.
At the intersection of AI and Service Design, how do these domains influence one another? How can they benefit from one another? What are expectations for AI projects and what is the reality? Here are some relevant material related to this intersection.
Impactful Service Designed Identity with AI
This case put forward by the SDN team shows how machine learning models and AI can compliment the design process. By being able to analyze immense amounts of data and finding correlations that are practically impossible for humans to identify, AI guides design resources towards the right direction. This ensures that the capabilities and skills of designers can be used exactly where they are needed the most. Machine learning models can also predict the business impact of design more precisely and significantly support the value growth of design.
“By combining machine learning models enabled by artificial intelligence with high quality service design work we can significantly build credibility towards design as an activity with a high business impact.”
Service Design in the Age of Automation
With the growing presence of self-service kiosks and automated services, the author evaluates the role of service designers in the future. Services will always need to be altered to support the complex and emotional nature of people, especially at universities. Service designers must continually find opportunities to impart a human connection, while upholding key design principles such as empathy, in models that integrate digital or automated services.
“Every service touchpoint serves as a data point in a vast constellation of shining opportunities.”
AI meets Design Toolkit
In this toolkit, you can find set of tools for each step of the design thinking process to help designers turn AI into social, user, and business value. It’s an invitation to designers and innovators everywhere to design with and for machine intelligence to create human-centered applications and meaningful user experiences. It’s a free download so go grab yours.
Overcoming the Fear of AI
In this article, the CTO of Accenture states that service design techniques and principles can be valuable to agencies especially when it comes to design AI-enabled workflows. It urges them to address vital topics such as their workforces’ concern about AI as well as enhancing the end-user’s experiences. Embracing service design can pay off long term as it enhances organizational agility and citizen centricity.
July Workshop: Fantasy vs Reality in AI
A recap of our first community-hosted workshop led by Renae and the team from Service Design Tools on July 2nd, 2020.
With experiences shared from designers, engineers, and researchers, we discussed best practices for managing expectations of AI projects. Misalignments in expectations across the team often involve (1) (mis)communication of data availability and accessibility or (2) understanding of what AI technology is actually capable of.
Here are some things that can be done:
- involve engineers in early meetings and workshops
- share data specs (features, quantity, quality) upfront
- communicate if data still needs to be collected or if there is a data collection strategy
- do the research to understand what the technology is actually capable of; not necessarily having to understand the technical information, but just know what is feasible and what is not.
If you didn’t attend the event, don't worry, we got you covered. You can catch up by reading our workshop summary on medium, have a look over the presentation, or check out the miro board with the brainstorm exercises.
Upcoming: Speculating Protopian AI Futures
AIxDesign and Speculative Futures Rotterdam have decided to pair up and reimagine futures for AI technologies in a more positive light, with SDG framework as inspiration. We are challenging prevailing dystopian narratives and applying our speculative powers to co-imagine AI for SDG scenarios. We want to give room to speak up about our anxieties and brainstorm new ideas putting aside the pop culture prejudices.
📖 Read : From Hype to Practice: Revealing the Effects of AI in Service Design
The growing applications of AI in the design process will allow service designers to become content curators as they facilitate the design and development of a solution that meets both user and business needs.
Download PDF from ResearchGate to read
👁 Watch: Andrew Ng explains enterprise AI strategy
An interview with Andrew Ng, where he discusses challenges in adopting AI and how organizations can develop an AI strategy to successfully carry out an AI project and create value beyond hype. The transcript can also be found beneath the video, for those who would rather read.
🎧 Listen: AI Zen with Andrew and Jen
Tune in on discussions between a designer and a data scientist from IBM on AI projects and creating AI experiences!
About AIxDesign
AIxDesign is a place to unite practitioners and evolve practices at the intersection of AI/ML and design. Currently, we are organizing monthly virtual events, sharing content, exploring collaborative projects, and looking to developing fruitful partnerships.
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