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Summary
AI agents are on the rise: people are talking about them, getting excited, and putting infrastructure into place to support them. You may be asked to design agents soon—or you may want to think through your product as an agent in order to get a leg up on your competition. What’s different about designing for agents? Are you ready? Rosenfeld author Christopher Noessel published Designing Agentive Technology back in 2017, and it seems like the world is just now catching up. Join Chris as he recaps the core ideas from that book, how agents have evolved since publication, and what it all might mean since the explosion of generative AI. Takeaways include… What is an agent? How do agents differ and complement other modes of interaction? Why are people getting excited about it now? What does generative AI bring to the agentive table?
Key Insights
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AI agents are systems capable of taking actions on behalf of users, displaying agency based on a given principle.
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The rise of agentive technologies coincides with advancements in large language models and AI's growing complexity.
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Designers play a crucial role in ensuring AI technologies are user-centered, focusing on empowerment rather than replacement.
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Nussle identifies a framework for understanding agentive technologies and their use cases, highlighting the importance of user setup and continuous engagement.
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Ethical concerns arise as AI systems may prioritize corporate interests over user needs, particularly when agents operate behind the scenes.
Notable Quotes
"I'm not offended by whoever's sending an AI note taker here, but I don't know how I feel about it."
"Agents are increasingly appearing in AI, cleaning our floors or watching spam in our inboxes."
"We need to ensure that design in AI helps users rather than replaces them."
"The main difference is who is doing the work and where is the user's attention."
"An agent does its work outside of the user's attention, enabling greater productivity."
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