"Most design leaders right now are treating AI the way they treated mobile in 2008: delegating it, outsourcing judgment, waiting for patterns to settle. That worked then because the breakthroughs were spatial. It will not work now because the breakthroughs are behavioral. And behavioral systems require a different kind of leadership entirely. We are in a shift. And most leaders have not moved yet."
"Software used to be deterministic. You designed a flow, shipped it, and it behaved the same way every time. The design surface was interface, structure, and usability. Models are different. They are adaptive and non-deterministic. The same input can produce different outputs depending on phrasing, context, or temperature. They flex. That flexibility is the point, but it introduces complexity. Cost is now part of the design surface. Context windows expand and contract. Outputs drift in tone and style based on invisible signals."
Most design leaders are treating AI like mobile in 2008, delegating judgment and waiting for patterns to settle. Past leadership centered on scaling mature materials, embedding patterns, and coaching teams. Presence, empathy, and process anchored teams while materials matured, but those qualities are no longer sufficient. Models are adaptive and non-deterministic; identical inputs can yield different outputs depending on phrasing, context, or temperature. Flexibility introduces complexity: cost becomes part of the design surface, context windows vary, outputs drift in tone and style, and personalization emerges through prompts and adaptive systems. Behavioral systems demand new leadership fluency to guide capabilities effectively.
Read at Hardik Pandya
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