Embracing AI for a Future-Ready Mindset in UX Teams
Practical steps for UX designers to stay ahead in the AI era
In his thought-provoking article “UX Needs a Sense of Urgency About AI,” Jakob Nielsen, a seasoned UX veteran, states the harsh reality: UX professionals must embrace the AI imperative or risk becoming obsolete. This call to action, rooted in Nielsen’s experience during the transformative dot-com era, serves as a guide for our industry. But the question arises: How can UX professionals immerse themselves in AI, especially when their current roles seem disconnected from this technology?
As part of an innovation team at SAP Signavio, I am lucky enough to be working at the forefront of technology — currently also in the field of AI. We firmly believe that AI is not only here to stay but is essential for both our professional growth and the organizations we serve. So, I’m here to show you some ideas on how to gradually integrate AI in your UX team across different company environments, using examples from SAP Signavio and SAP.
Security First: Safety is the focus of AI integration
Before we take a closer look at how we can improve our AI knowledge and skill set, it’s crucial to emphasize the importance of security and ethical considerations, especially when dealing with corporate data. Preventing data leaks and maintaining data integrity is paramount. Therefore, it’s advisable to consult with your organization’s security or data protection teams, especially if there are no existing guidelines or training in place.
Decoding the AI maturity spectrum: How organizations are evolving with AI
In navigating the AI landscape, we’ve observed that companies typically fall into one of three distinct AI Maturity Levels, each signifying their relationship and engagement with AI technologies.
Level 1: AI Unawareness
At this initial stage, organizations and teams lack awareness of AI’s potential. They do not know yet how AI could enhance their work or product offerings.
Level 2: AI Interest
Here, companies are showing a growing interest in AI.They recognise its potential, but are struggling with its application.
Level 3: Active AI Engagement
This stage marks a significant shift. Organizations not only understand AI’s benefits but actively employ it in their operations
Level 1: AI unawareness
At this initial stage, organizations and teams lack awareness of AI’s potential. They do not know yet how AI could enhance their work or product offerings. Here are some action points for level 1.
Utilizing AI for daily tasks and skill enhancement: Even if your team or company shows little interest in AI, or if you’re the only UX designer, start by exploring well-known AI tools like ChatGPT, Google Bard, Bing, and others that are increasingly being integrated with AI, such as Miro, Grammarly and Notion. Our approach — using AI to write better copy, ideate, develop workshops, and more. You can find inspiration and guidance in the article “AI as UX Assistant” from NNGroup.
Proactive AI engagement: Seize this opportunity for greater efficiency by optimizing your work with AI tools and staying attuned to emerging trends and patterns in AI. Such developments are pivotal in our field, and as UX designers, our involvement in shaping these experiences is essential. Staying informed enables us to effectively design AI tools and features in the future.
Level 2: AI interest
Here, companies are showing a growing interest in AI. They recognize its potential but are struggling with its application. Here are some action points for level 2.
Embracing the power of rituals: Make AI an ongoing topic in your regular meetings with the UX team. Our approach — in our UX weekly meetings, where we discuss accomplishments and upcoming projects, we’ve enriched our agenda with a new segment titled ‘AI-Related Topics.’ This addition goes beyond our standard inspirational topics, encompassing both UX and broader areas. In this segment, we share articles, videos, and emerging AI tools, discuss AI capabilities, and explore patterns crucial for our work with AI. This initiative fosters an AI-centric mindset and encourages proactive engagement with AI technologies.
Building an AI-UX reference file: Compile the resources in a shared file accessible to all team members, creating a place for collective learning. Our approach — to support our work, we’ve created a compact ‘AI-UX Reference Source.’ This resource is a carefully curated collection of screens, articles, and tools specifically relevant to AI in UX. It acts as a handy reference, providing quick access to inspiration and aiding in the development of AI-enhanced UX designs. At SAP, we’re fortunate to have a central team dedicated to AI and UX on a broad scale. However, we believe it’s equally important to refine our mindset and take proactive steps within our smaller team framework. This method ensures that our AI-UX Reference source is not only a collection of resources but a catalyst for continuous learning and active engagement in AI within UX.
Conducting AI workshops for UX teams: Gather people to spark creativity and brainstorm on opportunities. Our approach — as an innovation team, we hold workshops to explore the role and potential of AI in UX. These sessions are designed to kindle curiosity about Generative AI, and its applications in our field. Our focus is twofold:
· Inspiring engagement: Encouraging our UX colleagues to embrace GenAI’s capabilities, fostering a mindset open to its possibilities.
· Strategic AI integration: Using the ‘Generative AI Product Principles’ formulated by our manager, Lukas N.P. Egger, we jointly initiate the creation of a GenAI-focused product strategy from a UX perspective.
These workshops serve as both a source of inspiration and a platform for shaping how AI can enhance our UX work, ensuring we’re prepared to meet future challenges and opportunities.
Level 3: Active AI usage
At this level, organizations actively use AI. They understand its benefits and know how to apply it effectively. Here are some action points for level 3.
Stimulating knowledge exchange with AI experts and teams: Break down silos and create synergy around AI topics. In our organizational ecosystem, there are AI experts and specialists in various teams, even dedicated central teams. These experts conduct regular sessions, such as monthly meetings, to share their progress or achievements. If you have this opportunity in your org, actively seek to join these groups or take the initiative to start such exchanges. This effort ensures that the dispersed knowledge doesn’t remain isolated in silos but is shared for mutual benefit. While this extra step might demand additional time and effort, it’s instrumental in advancing your understanding and application of AI. Ideally, when leading these initiatives, you should secure the support and recognition of senior leadership for the value of knowledge sharing to gain support and resources at a higher level. This strategy not only strengthens individual and team competencies, but also fosters an environment of continuous learning and collective innovation in the field of AI.
Facilitating cross-team collaboration for AI innovation: When considering the development of an AI feature to enhance your product, it’s essential to start with internal insights. Our approach — we conducted research and workshops using a top-down and bottom-up approach. Initially, we interviewed leaders, expert developers, and customer-facing roles like consultants to identify potential AI opportunities. Subsequently, we conducted surveys with individual product teams to gather ideas. Following this, we hosted workshops open to all interested parties. These collaborative efforts resulted in a refined shortlist of AI-enhanced product expansion ideas for future discovery. More importantly, this process sparked interest and inspiration in AI throughout our organization, garnering enthusiastic participation and support.
Hosting online generative AI events: This involves uniting AI experts and employees to boost knowledge exchange. Our approach — as SAP Signavio’s innovation hub, we had the privilege of leading a digital event on the topic of AI. A critical aspect of our approach was ensuring the active involvement of our UX team in the event’s organization. This strategy allowed us to present a comprehensive overview of AI from diverse perspectives, ranging from engineering and product development to UX. The event was a resounding success, drawing over 800 registrations across two days. Our aim was to broaden the AI conversation within SAP Signavio, raising awareness and understanding of AI’s potential. Furthermore, we highlighted various AI initiatives within SAP and SAP Signavio, fostering a sense of community and creating synergies. All sessions were recorded and uploaded to a dedicated SharePoint page, allowing those who couldn’t attend to access and review the materials, including slides and resources. This initiative was more than just an event; it was a platform to connect people and teams, encouraging them to engage with AI, share their insights, and collaborate on future innovations.
AI in UX as a vital leap forward
As UX experts, we are at the forefront of a digital revolution. AI offers us an extraordinary opportunity to revolutionize user interactions and experiences, making them more intuitive, empathetic, and efficient. Consider this a clear call to action: Let’s overcome the role of passive bystander and become active architects in this era of change. Whether in small steps or big leaps, the ideas I’ve presented here should help you along the way. Integrating AI into UX goes beyond simply introducing technology; it’s about paving the way to a future where technology blends harmoniously with human-centered design to create experiences that are unparalleled in their depth and understanding.
Experience matters. Follow our journey as we transform the way we build products for enterprise on www.sap.com/design.
