It’s hard to escape the reality that there’s something fundamentally off about the AI we are using. If I open an AI assistant, am I met with an engaging human-like experience? Or rather than a work friend, does it feel that I’m dealing with a bank clerk through a clinical interface that offers function not feeling, with impersonal conversations.
By now most of us have now experimented with an AI assistant, using them to streamline work tasks, spark creativity or tackle household admin – and 987 million people are now using AI assistants today.
And like web search engines provided the platforms for the internet to disrupt – AI assistants are now transforming into our sidekicks, and bringing artificial intelligence into the fabric of our every day professional and personal lives.
For AI tools to continue growing into our everyday companions, we need to address a fundamental question: shouldn’t they feel less like querying a database and more like chatting with a trusted friend?
Robot Wars
Companies are racing to create AI chatbot solutions, focusing primarily on functionality, efficiency and performance. These features that are undeniably crucial, but ones that should not overshadow the user’s emotional experience.
The absence of visual warmth, intuitive “human-like” interactions and relatable behaviour creates a barrier that makes these tools feel impersonal at best, and alien at worst. This effect limits user trust and engagement in the long term.
And the dissonance between AI’s growing capabilities and its cold presentation creates a subtle but persistent barrier to the deeper integration these technologies promise.
The characteristics of whoever wins the race for AI dominance won’t be just determined by who offers the most features or even the best technical service but also to those companies that create tools resonating with human needs: platforms that feel human, even when they’re not.
As a designer, much of my work is helping companies to shift away from sterile functionality to create tools with a genuine human touch that resonate with users. Many of those design principles play a role in evolving AI beyond raw functionality.
It’s All About Emotion
Emotional design is a great starting point. AI interfaces must act with emotional nuance.
Emotional design is a strategic approach, going beyond functionality to create a profound connection between users and a product or interface. Aesthetics, functionality and storytelling can invoke emotion to enhance a user’s satisfaction and engagement.
For example, look at how Spotify redefined the music streaming platform service to connect with its users emotionally through personalised playlists and recommendations. Offerings like the yearly Spotify Wrapped playlist are able to tap into nostalgia and spark memories which helps keep users engaged and excited about the platform.
Creating a human feel to AI assistants means ensuring interactions feel natural, empathetic, and responsive to context. AI assistants must be created to understand tone of voice, language patterns, and emotional context. Designers are well placed to understand this, as we work in understanding humans and creating visual connections with people.
Crucial to this is context-sensitivity. Learning to ‘read the room’ and shift persona and demeanor depending on not just who the user is, but also their current needs and emotional state. This means having the ability to change up formality, tone and or visual appearance to create more natural, situation-dependent communication.
Getting Personal
Personalisation is a crucial element in design that means tailoring a product to fit the individual needs and preferences of a user, moving beyond existing designs to create unique and relevant experience.
AI assistants must feel relevant and approachable. They must be able to adapt their behavior and interface based on the user’s age, personality, interests, and needs – not offering a ‘cookie cutter’ interface, but instead a unique friend for any situation.
This means it should evolve its interface for the user’s needs at any given time. For example adopting the personality of a yoga instructor or meditation guide for a user that seeks to learn about mindfulness. Personalisation in this sense isn’t just limited to creating a physical avatar of a mediation guide.
It should immerse the user in personalised yoga or mediation sessions, serving as a dedicated motivational guide while drawing on subtle personality traits like a calming and supporting tone.
And this could take any number of forms, adopting the persona of a seasoned session musician for a user wanting to learn about musical theory, an experienced Italian chef for a user intrigued by Mediterranean cuisine, or even a comedian for users in need of a laugh. Catered personalisation can bring AI to life in a way that feels natural.
Familiar Faces
The power of presenting a familiar face and traditional human customs cannot be understated in creating emotional connections to users. A friendly appearance suggests a friendly interaction and offers a character that users can relate to and uses are inevitably drawn to human faces with inviting expressions.
Designers and developers should collaborate more to adopt design languages that feel natural in everyday environments, instead of tech-driven aesthetics that convey a cold, machine-like identity.
Look at Siri or Alexa which have successfully entered our lives by offering ‘relatable’ solutions through a human name, voice, tone and non-technical interface. Successful AI interfaces can go one step further, and adopt a visual appearance or even a face that users can converse with.
AI for us
Ultimately, I believe, the AI battle for dominance will be won by connecting to hearts as well as minds. The game-changers will be the ones who can design technologies that truly understand and interact with humans.
It’s not about just having the most powerful algorithm, instead AI assistants must be able to adapt and feel genuinely human. And fundamental to this is design, which will be the bridge to take AI from robot to companion.
Design teams, who day-in and day-out engage with technology to emulate human experience have the expertise to craft interfaces that are responsive and genuinely engaging, not just serving users but truly understanding them. Design can provide the human heartbeat to take AI from lifeless algorithms to helpful organisms.
