Beyond The Buzz and Towards The Next Frontier

Everyone’s talking about how AI will transform design workflows. Figma, Adobe, and Canva are already showing us what’s possible.
But while we marvel at what AI can do for us, we’re overlooking a far bigger shift:

AI is becoming the next user. The next customer. The next interface.

In this provocative and future-forward keynote, Mario Van der Meulen challenges conventional UX thinking and invites design leaders to explore what it means to design for intelligent, non-human systems.

This is not just about faster productivity or smarter tools. This is about a paradigm shift:
Where UX meets systems design, human-centered becomes hybrid-centered, and designers must level up their strategic lens to stay relevant in the age of AI.

Key Themes Explored:

• AI as User, Not Just Tool
  Why your next “customer” might be an algorithm—and what that demands of your design approach.

• The Shift to Hybrid Experience Design
  Designing systems that are interpretable and valuable to both human and machine actors.

• Humanity as a Design Principle
  How to embed care, ethics, and warmth into systems that risk becoming cold and automated.

• Rethinking UX Strategy
  Moving from journeys to ecosystems, from interface design to intent design, from usability to symbiosis.

• Designing for the Interactions You Can’t See
  When your UI is an API—or your co-user is a bot—what does "experience" even mean?

Available Formats:

• Keynote (40–60 minutes)

• Fireside conversation or panel

• Design team workshop (half-day)

Audience Takeaways:

🔹 Reframe AI as a user, not just a tool
🔹 Understand the systemic role of design in AI-integrated futures
🔹 Learn how to embed human value in algorithmic interactions
🔹 Explore new responsibilities and opportunities for UX leadership
🔹 Equip your teams to think and design beyond screens and journeys

Who This Is For:

• UX and product design teams

• Design leaders and heads of innovation

• AI, ML and digital product strategists

• CXOs rethinking digital experience in AI-integrated systems

• Futurists, technologists, systems thinkers

What People Say:

“Mario’s framing of AI as the next user, not just the next tool, fundamentally changed how we’re thinking about product strategy.”
— Head of Experience Design, Fintech

“Beyond the Buzz pushed us out of our tactical design bubble and into a space where we’re thinking like architects of future systems.”
— Director of Product Innovation, Healthcare

Why This Talk Now?

Because we’re not at the beginning of AI adoption—we’re mid-flight.

And if designers want to stay relevant, they must start designing for systems that learn, evolve, and interact in non-human ways—while still carrying the weight of human trust, care, and meaning.

Are you ready to lead design into the next frontier?