Artificial intelligence promises to augment every designer and developer with an unfathomable amount of data, instantly available and queried by natural language. Trillions of previous examples and hundreds of millions of (some) people’s experiences can be summed up in a helpful chat box right beside the code you’re writing. Maybe you’re not even directly writing the code anymore! When this rapidly evolving experiment matures, imagine how easy it will be to build something new. Imagine how difficult it will be to differentiate your product from the next. Imagine how confident we may become about what “other” people need.
In this session, we’ll explore the present landscape of how AI can augment the product development lifecycle and take a speculative look at what may be possible in the near future. How will a product stand out in the crowd? What investments should a company be making now? The mythical “average” user is well characterized by AI, but real people are not quite so compliant. Ultimately, competition will occur at the edges, and companies that understand and embrace the power of difference, building the capability to reach each of their customers, will have an advantage. While AI may automate the routine, and the mechanics of accessibility may change, AI cannot automate a culture of inclusion.
Presenter
William Reuschel
Inclusive Design Practice Lead, Applause App Quality, Inc.
William is the Inclusive Design Practice Lead for Applause App Quality, Inc. He helps companies build sustainable inclusive design programs and conduct accessibility research with assistive technology users. Prior to joining Applause, he spent 12 years with the American Foundation for the Blind, first working in the product evaluation lab at AFB Tech, and later serving as Director of AFB Consulting.
