Creative inspiration can stem from anything in the universe. Some people are inspired by the texture of an orange peel, a shadow through a slatted window, 17th century architecture, remnants of a dream, the flecks of color in a partner's eye -- the source of material is limitless. The design industry is massive. There are subcategories distributed across digital and physical products. Architectural design, home interior design, industrial organizational design, graphic design, interaction design, animation design, product design -- the list goes on.

Creative inspiration can stem from anything in the universe. Some people are inspired by the texture of an orange peel, a shadow through a slatted window, 17th century architecture, remnants of a dream, the flecks of color in a partner's eye -- the source of material is limitless. The design industry is massive. There are subcategories distributed across digital and physical products. Architectural design, home interior design, industrial organizational design, graphic design, interaction design, animation design, product design -- the list goes on.

"Democratizing access to good design is absolutely core to our mission of helping people make the world more beautiful…there are millions and millions of people out there who would like to have better design in their environments, but they can't afford an interior designer, and for all of those people, Lexset will be a go-to," says Leslie Oliver Karpas, co-founder of Lexset AI, a company that has built and applied an AI visual recognition system from 3D models of objects to the world of interior design. The team at Lexset has created a synthetic data generation engine of about 80,000 different objects of furniture imaged from thousands of different angles and in different lighting conditions in order to maximize the system's ability to recognize those objects when presented with a photo or real-world space. The system is even able to distinguish between different styles of furniture (e.g. One of the use cases of this technology is a plug-in for furniture company websites through which images of what you'd like a space in your home to look like could be uploaded, scanned by Lexset AI, and compared to the products offered by that furniture company. Karpas offers an exciting and intriguing glimpse into what the future of interior design might look like, explaining in depth how their technology works, the positive effect of good design on people's well-being, the objective versus subjective aspects of interior design, and use cases unrelated to interior design involving robotics.

Second, good design can bring A.I.'s benefits to those who otherwise might be left out. That so much of A.I. is currently directed at the affluent contradicts the notion that good design can serve everyone, regardless of age, condition or economic background. We should take the "A.I. for all" approach, and it should follow a human need. Designers and researchers should work together in the early stages of design to identify those needs, develop A.I. that responds compassionately to human demands, and use design to ensure cost-effective, accessible A.I.-enabled products and services. Third, A.I. should never create emotional dependence.

The skills required of a modern designer are empathy, creative problem-solving, critical thought, persuasion and technical competence. As we travel from the analogue world ever deeper into a digital universe, designers are needing to embrace coding, data analysis, voice technology and beyond to create interactions and experiences that were inconceivable a decade ago. As designers learn and adapt, machines also increase in capability. Companies such as Autodesk, the global architectural software company, use AI-based algorithms with data to rapidly design functional parts for things consumer's trust, like airplanes and cars. The shapes are often organic-looking, high-performing and weight-/energy-reducing.

A couple of months ago, I shared with my friends how I think apps like Magic and Operator are going to be the next big thing. If you don't know about these apps, what make them special is that they don't use a traditional UI as a mean of interaction. Instead, the entire app revolves around a single messaging screen. These are called'Invisible' and'Conversational' apps, and since my initial post, a slew of similar apps came to market. Even as of writing this, Facebook is releasing M, a personal assistant that's integrated with Messenger to help you do about anything.

Slack's outstanding UX propelled the startup to unicorn status amidst a flurry of competitors, responsive design flourished and gave birth to a new era of mobile friendliness and device agnosticism, and the web as a whole experienced a shift in consciousness as sites became easier to use, apps became more intuitive to navigate, and services became all the more delightful and engaging to interact with. I am proud to say that the field has finally come of age and found itself. At long last, UX Evangelists, Digital Empaths, and Interaction Designers have risen to the highest echelons of the creative class to further the bleeding edge of technology, design, and user delight. With UX Evangelists like Tobias van Schneider, Jennifer Aldrich and Chase Buckley behind the wheel, we are steering towards a brighter future. A future where little big details bring about user delight at every corner, where device agnostic pixel perfection is the norm, and where simple day-to-day experiences engage, excite, and stimulate users in new and innovative ways. So where do you fit into all of this?