Designing AI products | Vitaly Friedman | #72

Vitaly, the UX lead with the European Parliament and co-founder of Smashing Magazine, reflects on the messy reality of designing AI products and why UX matters more than ever in the age of artificial intelligence and AI agents. He also explores how and why many companies rush into implementing AI without addressing issues in their processes and systems and discusses the importance of trust, transparency, and guidance in designing AI products.

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https://www.uxtweak.com/podcast/vitaly-friedman-designing-ai-products

Episode highlights

00:01:56 - The confusing reality of 2026

00:03:54 - What are we doing with AI?

00:06:28 - Prompting and user experience

00:09:56 - AI is the next Internet

00:13:52 - Current state of AI

00:17:57 - The main problem with designing AI products

00:23:44 - How AI amplifies structural and data issues

00:31:12 - Final advice from Vitaly

About our guest

Vitaly loves beautiful content and does not give up easily. Born in Minsk, Belarus, he studied computer science and mathematics in Germany. While writing algebra proofs and preparing for software engineering at nights in the kitchen, at the same time he discovered passion for typography, interface design and writing.

After working as a freelance designer and developer for 6 years, he co-founded Smashing Magazine back in 2006, a leading online magazine for designers and developers. His curiosity drove him from interface design to front-end to performance optimization to accessibility and back to user experience over all the years.

Vitaly is the author, co-author and editor of Smashing Books , and a curator of Smashing Conferences. He is the UX lead with the European Parliament and Smashing Magazine and front-end/UX consultant in Europe and abroad, working with large and small companies and organizations like Haufe-Lexware, Axel-Springer and others.

He also runs Measure UX and Smart Interface Design Patterns, friendly video courses on UX and design patterns, along with a live UX training for passionate UX and product designers.

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