Fjord, the design and innovation consultancy for Accenture Interactive, believes that the next step for AI is a generation of systems that blend it with human intelligence to empower people to cope with increasing complexity in the workplace and enhance the human experience. Businesses must reposition their thinking and reimagine how to design AI for the human intelligence around it. With this in mind, I invited Connor Upton onto the podcast to learn more about the urgency with which organizations need to rethink their overall approach to AI, moving away from just ‘adoption’ into long term strategic implementation at scale. As businesses accelerate their adoption of AI, Connor reveals how they will see a dramatic impact in the below three areas through unlocking the full potential of humans and AI working together:

 

• Enhancing the human experience through extending human’s perceptual capabilities like vision, hearing or helping us learn better
• Empowering people in complex systems and driving trust in AI through designing interfaces that make the logic of AI visible and open to human direction
• Envisioning and developing new products and services and how designers use AI to do this

Connor Upton is the Regional Data Design Director for Fjord EALA. He is based in the Dublin studio, which sits at the heart of Accenture’s multidisciplinary innovation hub, the Dock, where he fosters collaboration between designers, data scientists & software engineers.

Connor applies human-centric approaches to the design of complex work environments and has published and spoken widely on this topic. His projects cover multiple domains, including public safety, manufacturing, and sustainability. He is keenly interested in how interactive visualizations can support collaboration between human and artificial intelligence.