58. How can UX designers and researchers safeguard their careers with the arrival of AI? Chris Reardon, former Head of Product Design, Responsible AI @ Meta (Part 3)

“If I think about five years from now, I would say that UX as we know it today will be radically changed....Things that deal with rote tasks are definitely going to be something of the domain of AI in the future.... [but] I think the space that we [as designers] work in is around intuition, empathy, emotion, and that's much much harder for AI. You know, it's a scary time for everyone, right? Everybody's a little nervous. But the reality is that a lot of what we do already is still very valuable in this future world that's already here."

Chris Reardon was formerly Head of Product Design, Responsible AI @ Meta and is now Design Director - AI Envisioning Studio, Technology & Society @ Google.

This is the third of my series of four revealing AI-related conversations with Chris as he discusses his own career journey at the cutting edge of designing artificial intelligence products, his views on the impact of AI on design as a discipline, the roles and responsibilities that will be needed for design leadership in AI, how AI might influence individual design careers.  

In this episode we talk about career planning for designers and researchers working on AI-based products.  

Chris is hugely experienced, impassioned and persuasive, and he shares plenty of nuggets of his hard-won wisdom that anyone in any organisation considering working in the AI space should reflect upon.

I hope you enjoy this episode and find something thought-provoking to consider in the context of your own work. 

Thanks for listening. 

Mike Green