How agentic AI enables a new approach to user experience design
Agentic AI is reshaping UX design by prioritizing user intent and personalization, leading to adaptive and intuitive digital experiences.
In brief
- The rise of agentic AI marks a significant shift in technology, with increased investment and positive ROI, despite concerns about job displacement.
- UX design is evolving from guiding user navigation to understanding and fulfilling user intent, transforming how digital experiences are created.
- Future designers will focus on behavior models and trust protocols, confirming AI systems understand context while personalizing experiences for individuals.
Few moments in history include the tectonic shift of a technology, or industry, like artificial intelligence (AI). Since the moment ChatGPT was released, investment in AI has grown from roughly $50b to well over $1t in the US.1 The recent EY Pulse Survey: Why agentic AI is a revolution stuck in an evolution reveals that 21% of senior leaders’ organizations are investing $10m or more, with 35% planning to do so next year. Remarkably, 97% of senior leaders report positive ROI across their business functions, underscoring the value of increased spending on AI.2
As we look ahead, agentic AI promises an even more profound shift. Unlike today’s generative models that assist on command, agentic AI can take initiative, pursue goals and act autonomously within defined boundaries. However, despite this promising return, the adoption of agentic AI faces significant barriers. Notably, 64% of leaders express concerns that employees fear being replaced in their jobs, as opposed to AI augmenting their roles, which is stifling AI integration.2 This begs the question … given the additive power of both agent and humans, how can we overcome the barriers to adopting agentic AI and reimagine the AI-powered user experience (UX) of tomorrow?
The evolution of UX has always been catalyzed by technological progress. From graphical user interfaces (GUIs) to mobile to voice, each step forward required a rethink of how humans interact with digital systems. But with the rise of agentic AI: intelligent systems that act on behalf of users — we’re entering a new paradigm. This isn’t just a shift in interface; it’s a transformation in how digital experiences are created and consumed.
At the heart of this transformation is intent. In a world where users increasingly delegate tasks to AI, the job of design is no longer to guide clicks and taps but to shape systems that understand and fulfill user intent. Goals define what users want to achieve, intent reveals why. Designing for agentic UX means building systems that recognize this distinction and act accordingly.
Shifting paradigms: from navigation to intent-driven design
Traditional UX was built for navigation. Designers focused on making structured interfaces intuitive: menus, flows and personas all served to guide users through static environments. But AI shifts the center of gravity. Today, designers are using AI to assist in prototyping, testing and generating. Tomorrow, they’ll design systems that collaborate with users: and with agents — to fulfill intent with minimal friction.
This means a change in both tools and mindset. Instead of static wireframes and layouts, tomorrow’s designers will craft behavior models, trust protocols and prompt libraries. They’ll need to confirm not just usability but legibility for AI systems, so that agents can parse meaning and act. In many ways, UX becomes more like choreography than layout: a dynamic interplay between human intention and system response.
Designing for AI-driven systems also requires new forms of testing and iteration. Where we once relied on usability tests and A/B experiments, designers will need to validate how well an agent understands context, handles ambiguity or explains its choices. These new feedback loops won’t just improve the user interface: they’ll train the agentic system itself.
Interfaces won’t disappear, but their role will shift. In some contexts: like monitoring a digital twin or comparing product scenarios — visualization remains essential. Interfaces will become more situational — surfacing only when human cognition, emotion or intervention is required. Designers will orchestrate these moments carefully, confirming that when an interface appears, it serves clarity and trust.
We should also acknowledge that some users will prefer visual exploration over delegation. Designing for intent doesn’t mean eliminating choice; it means offering the right level of control for each user and interaction. A well-designed agentic system should provide graceful ways to intervene, explore or override: just as easily as it handles things automatically.
The future of UX: embracing adaptive systems and personalization
Personalization, too, will deepen. We’re moving from designing for personas to designing for individuals. With real-time context modeling and adaptive behavior, each UX can now be shaped by actual behavior, not generalized archetypes. UX moves from empathy by proxy to empathy by pattern.
As we transition from designing for personas to individuals, the future of UX emphasizes adaptive systems that leverage AI to understand user intent. This evolution fosters empathy by pattern, enabling designers to create experiences that respond to real-time behaviors and create trust in AI interactions, shaping a more personalized user journey.
In nearly every conversation with clients, the evolution beyond static, frozen-in-time personas is paramount to a next-gen, personalized customer or employee experience. Our work has been hyper-focused on defining both the technological underpinnings and experiential requirements to bring living, breathing, individualized segments to life, a true evolutionary process from both the design and technical perspectives.
As this landscape continues to evolve, new roles will emerge. Designers may take on titles like intent architect or experience strategist, responsible not just for UI but also for system intelligence. One emerging dimension is agent personality: defining how an AI system behaves, communicates and earns user trust. It’s not about making AI human, but making it appropriate to context, culture and expectations.
This is the future of UX: not just creating usable interfaces but designing adaptive systems that understand and act on user intent. It’s not the end of design — it’s a new beginning, and it's one that calls for the same core values that have always defined UX — clarity, empathy and purpose — scaled through intelligence.
Special thanks to Michael McAghon and Ashley Conner for their contributions.
