Jason Giles began his career at the dawn of the commercial internet, when a new technology cracked a door open and curiosity mattered more than credentials. He was early enough to watch the dot-com crash unfold firsthand, discovering that technological disruption rarely replaces human judgment, it changes where it’s needed most. Today, after more than two decades leading design at Microsoft, DirecTV, Ticketmaster, and now UserTesting, Jason sees the same patterns emerging with AI. The excitement, uncertainty, fear of missing out, and rapid acceleration all feel remarkably familiar. In this talk, Jason draws on lessons from the internet’s formative years to explore why AI doesn’t diminish the value of designers it raises the premium on judgment. As AI compresses days of design and research into seconds, the real competitive advantage shifts from producing work to knowing what good work looks like, what questions to ask, and which decisions still require human discernment. The session concludes with an extended Q&A, focused on the questions that matter most to the audience.

AI isn't coming to design, it's already here. But between the hype cycle and the panic, there's a gap: the real work of building with AI when you're shipping products, managing teams, and working with real constraints. This talk cuts through the noise. We'll explore what it actually means to integrate AI into your design practice and product workflow; not as a feature checkbox, but as infrastructure that changes how teams work. We’ll explore the practical realities of how AI is changing the shape of design work, where it genuinely speeds you up (and where it doesn't), and what it takes to lead a team through this shift without losing what makes design matter.

Many UX professionals spend years mastering research, strategy and design, yet still struggle to create impact. This talk explores the difference between UX competence and organisational competence, and why understanding people, trust, influence and alignment is often what determines whether great UX work creates real change. Drawing on lessons from consulting and enterprise environments, it challenges the idea that identifying problems is enough and argues that understanding how organisations work is just as important as understanding users.