Design and AI: prospects for dialogue

As artificial intelligence (AI) is beginning to pervade everyday life, design needs to raise questions and take a leading role in the dialogue between the latest technological innovations and their users. Through an analysis of the current literature and an empirical study, this article aims to highlight the role designers can assume in this context while AI may become their ideal object of study and working tool. In particular, our analysis on function, language and meaning of products integrating AI, carried out from a design standpoint, seeks to demonstrate that the two fields can be symbiotic, culminating in the prospects of an interaction that is not only functional and understandable, but also practically and emotionally significant. We show that, as well as many of the theoretical requirements, Interaction Design already has sufficient experience to serve as mediator between artificial intelligence and human beings. Pursuing natural interaction, through a tangible materialization and an empathic focus on users rather than on technology, might represent a pathway towards the inquiry and experimentation combining these two disciplines.