Unsurprisingly, the theme at UX Brighton this year centred on AI and its influence on our craft and the industry as a whole. AI is becoming a part of our practice wether you like it or not. The day kicked off with a talk by Will Taylor, who gave a thoughtful recap of AI’s evolution and offered a practical structure for discussing data’s role with stakeholders. His point? AI isn’t always the answer. Sometimes, understanding the user need and selecting the right solution — which might be a simple, well-designed task flow or predictive algorithms to deal with overwhelming amount of choice — can be far more effective. It was a solid reminder to carefully match tools to the outcomes we want, ensuring they genuinely serve both the user and the business, rather than defaulting to AI as a catch-all solution. Then came Pablo Stanley talk — a blend of fun, creative energy and thoughtful insight. He introduced a framework for understanding the levels of autonomy we give to AI in interactions, but also highlighted that when designing for AI the fundamental principles are not that different from what we know to be true for other products. One of the more controversial talks was Kwame Ferreira discussion on “synthetic users.” His team is working with AI-generated users based on data from large language models. This raised bigger questions around ethics: if we know these models carry biases that amplify what we are trying to combat in the real world, could synthetic users become a tool for corporations to validate what their “fake” users want, potentially sidelining marginalised groups? It’s a tricky issue that demands careful consideration and questioning as we move forward. The day wrapped up with Maggie Appleton thought-provoking talk on the future of the web. Her concept of the “Dark Forest” — a web increasingly filled with bot-driven, fake interactions — struck a chord with many. She explored how this shift could push people away from the open web and toward more moderated, verified spaces where authenticity and humanness are assured. It’s a glimpse into a future where private, human-verified communications might become the norm, reshaping how we connect online. https://www.linkedin.com/in/sanita-lustika-674b1540/Sanita Lustika