Where does INDUSTRIAL DESIGN fit in the age of AI?

This past Friday, I gave a talk at NYC Tech Week about the future of hardware, and what design’s role needs to be as AI continues reshaping the landscape.

The main message: Design can’t be an afterthought.​

Too many teams treat design like a styling layer. Or a phase you “pass through” on the way to launch.

But the products people truly love, adopt, and recommend don’t come from cramming new tech into their lives.

They come from listening.

From empathy.

From asking, What problem are we actually solving?

And then using design as the connective tissue between user needs and technological possibility.

We talked about:

Integrating design early (like co-founder early).

Treating industrial design as a lens, not a department.​ And how the best hardware of the future won’t just be AI-powered, it’ll be human-driven.​

The audience asked some incredible questions around how physical products will evolve in an AI-dominated world, and where the human touch still matters.

It left me more energized than ever about the work ahead.

If you're thinking about where design fits in your product roadmap, I’d love to compare notes.

What role do you think industrial design should play in the age of AI?

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