Are We Designing for Humans or for Agents? The Future of UX in the Age of Synthetic Users

AI agents are already writing code, generating designs and even testing interfaces. But as synthetic users and AI developers enter the loop, who are we really designing for?
In this fiery debate between Dana Lawson and Christina Goldschmidt, we will explore the provocative question at the heart of every product team’s future: does human-centered design still matter when your users are increasingly non human, or do we need a new discipline that is explicitly agent-centered?

Challenges
● Balancing human-centered design with AI-driven efficiency
● Avoiding “synthetic bias” when testing or designing with AI personas and agents
● Redefining collaboration between design and engineering as AI builds and evaluates for us
● Deciding when to optimise for human understanding vs agent interpretation

Key Learnings
● What “synthetic users” really mean for UX, DX and product strategy
● How to design ethically and intelligently when the feedback loop includes AI agents
● Why the human perspective remains irreplaceable in experience design, even in an agent-centric world
● How to treat agents as a new class of stakeholder without losing sight of the humans they ultimately serve