UX-for-AI Survival Kit I Wish I Had

It's a massive upheaval: AI-first products are changing the rules of the game. ChatGPT can spin up UI content with a simple prompt. Agentive systems make decisions on behalf of users without traditional interfaces. The rules we lived by for years are being rewritten, and UX is seemingly being kept out of the loop. Many of you told me you’re worried about becoming obsolete, stuck doing surface-level UI tweaks, or the fear of being reduced to the status of a "human servant" while the digital overlords vacuum up the remaining 2% of the world's information. You’re seeing posts declare “UX is dead!” and wondering, “Where do I fit in this new world?” 😧

Here’s the truth: UX design isn’t going away – but it is being turned on its head. The skills that made us successful in the past won’t guarantee a future in the age of AI. This is our wake-up call. Just as I wrote in that viral post, the iceberg is flipping: the visible UI (the tip) is shrinking, and the invisible AI-driven "UX" experience beneath the surface is growing. It’s urgent, it’s scary... And it’s also an incredible opportunity for UX pros. Will you adapt – or will you go down with the ship?

From Fear to Strategy: Introducing the UX-for-AI Playbook

I refuse to let brilliant, dedicated, empathetic, and productive UX people go down with the Titanic. That’s exactly why I spent the last year pouring my heart and soul into a solution – a framework to turn this chaos into opportunity. It’s now a book called “UX for AI: A Framework for Designing AI-Driven Products.” This isn’t just another design book. It’s the definitive playbook for navigating the AI upheaval in our field. I wrote this book to answer the burning questions you’ve been asking me (and probably losing sleep over):

• How do I keep my UX career relevant when AI is changing everything?

• How do I design beyond the screen, for experiences driven by algorithms and data?

• How can I ensure I’m indispensable as AI takes over ever more tasks?

Inside the UX for AI book, I share a battle-tested framework born from 35+ real-world AI case studies (yes, with all the messy wins and fails laid bare... With my signature snark!). You’ll find a full toolkit of new UX methods that I’ve refined working on AI products – not theory or fluff, but practical techniques you can use right now. We go deep into the new “Iceberg Model” of UX for AI: AI-specific storyboards to help you understand and pick the right use case, digital twin for data and AI model analysis, value matrix mapping for AI features, AI-inclusive user-centered RITE testing with RAG (Retrieval-Augmented Generation), and more. Each chapter comes with step-by-step exercises so you can practice and master these skills — you won’t just read about Digital Twins, Value Matrices, or AI-First Information Architecture, you’ll actually create them. By the end, you’ll know how to lead a 4-in-a-box team (UX, PM, Dev, Data Science) through the entire lifecycle of an AI product: from choosing the right use cases, shaping the machine learning model’s behavior, mapping out data needs, to testing and tweaking the AI’s outputs to maximize real user impact. In short, this book gives you the strategy to thrive, not just survive, in the AI revolution hitting UX.

Built with 12 Top Experts: Community Wisdom Inside

One person’s perspective isn’t enough for a challenge this big. So I invited 12 of the brightest minds in UX and AI to contribute their wisdom to the book. Legends and trailblazers, including (in alphabetical order):

Casey Hudetz (AI storytelling master, upcoming book author)

Christopher Noessel (UX futurist and pioneer in agentive AI design)

Daria Siegel Kempka (the book's contributing editor and UX leader)

David Andrzejewski (data scientist with a unique UX perspective)

Greg Aper 🧑🏻🚀 🚀 (AI for UX tool specialist)

Jakob Nielsen (yes, the Jakob Nielsen, the father of usability)

Josh Clark (multiple book author and UX for AI thought leader)

Kathryn Campbell (AI research thought leader)

Mike Oren, PhD (UX leader and AI data scientist)

Paul Bryan (author of AI Humanifesto and STRAT organizer)

Ranjeet Tayi (AI UX Design at Informatica)

Thomas Wilson (UX for AI thought leader in healthcare)

You’ll find essays and insights from experts across different domains covering everything from algorithm design to UX for AI adoption in large enterprises to research best practices and AI ethics. These contributions are pure gold: perspectives from veterans who have been grappling with AI in healthcare, finance, enterprise, consumer apps… You name it.

Having these 12 expert voices alongside my own guidance means that the UX for AI book isn’t just my story — it’s a chorus of the UX community’s top thought leaders all aligned on one mission: to help you navigate the AI disruption. The result is a rich, multifaceted guide that addresses this revolution from every angle. It’s like having a personal board of mentors coaching you on how to handle AI in design. Together, we’re handing you the definitive solution to the UX-for-AI puzzle our industry is facing.

Already #1 – and a Free Digital Twin Chapter for You

The response to UX for AI has been nothing short of amazing. Even before the official release, it shot up to become Amazon’s #1 New Release in Data Modeling & Design 📈. In fact, demand has been so high that Wiley sold out the entire first printing – and a second run is on the way as we speak. (Honestly, I’m blown away and grateful for this community’s support 🙏). What this tells me is that UX professionals are HUNGRY for guidance in this AI storm. And I’m determined to get it into as many hands as possible.

To show you exactly how valuable this is, I want to give you a preview of one of the most powerful tools from the book – for free. It’s a concept called the Digital Twin, and it’s one of my favorite chapters. The Digital Twin is a game-changer for UXers: it’s all about creating a simplified model of your AI product’s “brain” so you can nail down what’s essential (and cut out what isn’t). This exercise clarifies your AI’s data sources, AI model predictions, and controls -- all on a single canvas. It forces those must-have conversations that so many teams skip: What is our AI really doing? What should it do? The value of building a Digital Twin is in the conversation that helps pin down the exact use cases your AI will deliver and aligning your team on how it will work, before you draw a single box or write a single line of code. It’s like having a persona for your AI-driven product.

🎁 As a thank you for being UX for AI Newsletter subscriber, I’m sending you the entire Digital Twin chapter as a FREE PDF download. Look for it in your inbox in the next hour.

Your Move – Don’t Get Left Behind

The AI revolution in UX isn’t some distant future. It’s happening right now. The ground is already shifting under our feet. You have a choice: either seize this moment and transform your career, or cling to old ways and watch the opportunities pass you by. I wrote UX for AI to make sure you come out on top of this upheaval. This book is more than pages and chapters – it’s a call to arms for our UX community to step up and lead in the age of AI.

If you’re feeling that mix of anxiety and excitement about what AI means for your job – good. That means you care about your craft and your future. And I’m here to tell you: you have every reason to be excited. With the right knowledge and tools, AI isn’t here to replace you – it’s here to empower you to design experiences that are potentially more impactful and more valuable than ever. The designers who get this will become the new leaders of our field. Those who don’t… well, they might become another cautionary tale of great talent that didn’t evolve when the landscape changed.

I want you to be among the leaders. That’s why I’m practically jumping up and down about this book. It has everything I wish I’d known when I first started working with AI in design. It’s the combined wisdom of a dozen top experts and two decades of my own experience distilled into a playbook you can start using immediately. No matter where you are in your career – junior UXer or seasoned lead – if you work with (or plan to work with) AI-driven products, this will reshape how you design and even how you think.

So here’s my challenge to you: Don’t just sit on the sidelines and watch this AI wave crash over UX. Grab your surfboard. Ride this wave and steer it. Dive into the free chapter, get your hands on the full book (if you haven’t already – it’s on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Wiley, you name it), and start implementing these ideas in your projects. Join the conversation with me and thousands of others using #UXforAI. Share what you learn. Ask questions. Hell, challenge the ideas and make them better – that’s what a community of practice is for!

This is a once-in-a-generation upheaval in design. It’s also a once-in-a-generation opportunity to redefine what it means to be a UX professional. I for one am pumped to see what you will do with AI when armed with the right tools and mindset. The future is up for grabs – let’s go claim it, together.

Greg

P.S. 🎁 Because you’re a UX for AI Newsletter subscriber, I’m sending you the entire Digital Twin book chapter as a FREE PDF right in your inbox.