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I remember a time when designing felt like speaking a secret language, a series of precise clicks and drags that, while powerful, felt more technical than fluid. Over the past three decades the evolution of design interfaces has been a journey from pixels to objects to conceptseach step abstracting away technical complexity and bringing us closer to pure creative intent. For years, the drag-and-drop interface has reigned supreme, democratizing design in ways we could only dream of before. But we’re now at a fascinating inflection point where the very nature of designing is evolving and giving way to something even more profound. Consider how a marketing manager can now type, “Create an Instagram story that captures the energy of our summer product launch,” and watch as AI generates multiple design directions in secondsthen continue the conversation to refine colors, adjust messaging, or explore different moods, all while collaborating with teammates who can contribute feedback in real-time. AI isnt just saving time on edits, it’s ushering in a paradigm where intent becomes the primary input, and natural language is the key that unlocks your first draft. This shift liberates us from the minutiae of technical execution, allowing us to focus on the truly visionary and strategic aspects of our work. This is what the researchers at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business call “generative synesthesia.” The harmonious blending of human exploration and AI exploitation to discover new creative workflows represents a fundamental shift in how we approach creativity. Analyzing datasets of over 4 million artworks, these researchers showed that text-to-image AI significantly enhances human creative productivity by 25% and increases the value of creative work by 50%. Beyond Text Boxes and Chat Interfaces To the Human as Creative Director While conversational interfaces are powerful starting points, the future of creative collaboration with AI goes far beyond text prompts. When you’re working with design, art, or music, it’s quite hard to think of the words to describe what you want to see, hear, or feelparticularly if you’re not skilled in those fields. Thinking of words for something you can’t even describe? That’s frustrating. We’re already seeing this evolution in action. In design products today, you can click on individual elements within an image and AI automatically recognizes what you’ve selectedwhether it’s a background, a person, or a specific objectand offers contextual editing options without requiring any text description. This automatic element recognition is just the beginning of more intuitive design interactions. That’s why I believe we’re moving toward hybrid experiences that blend conversation with direct manipulation. In practice, this might look like pointing at a section of your design and saying aloud, “Make this area feel more energetic,” while AI understands both the visual context of what you’re indicating and the emotional direction you want. You might start with natural language to establish direction, then use visual references to refine style, then return to conversation for iterations. The interface adapts to how creativity actually worksfluid, non-linear, and iterative. Consider a workflow where you upload a reference image, circle the part you like with your finger or cursor, and simply say “Apply this mood to my brand colors.” AI instantly understands the visual element you’re referencing and translates it into actionable design changes. These augmented tools let people work the way they think, not the way software traditionally demands. With these improvements to the way we interact with software, more people can now become creative directors while AI handles technical implementation. When AI can generate a dozen design variations in seconds, humans can focus on the higher-order creative decisions: Which direction best serves the vision? How does this connect emotionally with the audience? What story are we trying to tell? This shift mirrors how other creative industries have evolved. Film directors don’t operate cameras, they focus on vision, storytelling, and creative direction while specialized teams handle technical execution. AI is becoming that specialized technical team for visual creation and opening up a whole new world of possibilities for the 99% of the world who havent been able to access it before. The result is a new kind of creative leverage. A single person with a compelling vision can now execute ideas that previously required entire teams. But more importantly, the barrier between having an idea and seeing it realized becomes almost transparent. AI as Augmented Creativity The most important paradigm shift for designers and anyone embracing visual communication will be the shift from design tools to design intelligence. Instead of simply assisting with a starting point or end refinement, teams will be able to leverage AI as an intelligent thought partner thats versed in what truly works. Imagine how a tool thats trained on a vast database of brand assets will shape future design workflows. When coming up with a new campaign you can accelerate the foundational work of gathering existing brand assets, successful competitor strategies, and audience response data and verify your visual directions against that. Or rather than spending hours debating color palettes, AI will be able to instantly generate variations based on proven effectiveness for similar brands and audiences, using insights like “layouts with this visual hierarchy achieve higher engagement in B2B contexts” or “this color combination consistently builds trust with healthcare audiences.” This intelligence will extend to scaling tactical design decisions. Instead of designers manually crafting numerous layout variations, they can use their tool of choice to generate multiple compositions based on successful patterns from their previous work or industry peers. When selecting typography, ather than scrolling through countless font options, AI will recommend specific typefaces that have performed well for similar messaging and audiences, explaining why certain letterforms communicate trustworthiness while others convey innovation. The Collaborative Promise of Design Intelligence There’s a desire to view creativity in black and white terms: either it’s AI-generated or human-made. But work exists on a spectrum, with varying degrees of AI influence, from completely human-generated content to fully automated production. Those tight collaborative loops will ultimately shape how we work in an AI-powered world. The skills we need will evolve as well. A skill that a select few of us deployed yesterday now becomes crucial today: editing. As AI generates vast amounts of content, the human editor’s role is to fine-tune outputs, ensuring messaging is on-brand, culturally sensitive, and emotionally engaging. The editor’s experience and understanding of the audience plays a crucial role in transforming AI-generated content into something that truly resonates. As AI continues to evolve, I see a future where every person has unprecedented creative agency and where having an idea and bringing it to life becomes part of the same fluid, joyful process. This future is where the tools we use are as intuitive as thought itself.
Category:
E-Commerce
A client once confessed, At least half of every training dollar we spend is wastedwe just dont know which half. This is a sobering reality. In 2024, research from the Association of Talent Development found that the average organization spent $1,283 per employee on workplace learning. From university programs to leadership courses, and customized programs to team retreats, it seems weve tried it all. Unfortunately, much of that investment fails to deliver, or worse, backfires. Weve seen how this plays out. Whether that be mandatory DEI initiatives that trigger more backlash than inclusion, to mindfulness programs that only frustrate already chronically overworked employees, learning and development (L&D) programs can be a double-edged sword. In a reality where companies have constrained training budgets and AI looms over the future of work, leaders are under pressure to upskill their teams (and quickly). However, another “flavor of the month” workshop isnt going to cut it. So how do you create a training program that drives lasting change? First, we need to start by understanding why these programs so often fail. Here are six common reasons why, and what you need to do to get it right. 1. There is no strategic anchor Training without a clear link to strategic objectives is just noise. You should have absolute clarity on what skills and knowledge are necessary for your people to achieve business-critical outcomes. A pilots or surgeons training is life-and-death. Can you say the same about your emotional intelligence workshops? If not, start by defining the mission-critical skills your leaders must master. Everything else is a distraction. 2. Leaders arent walking the walk If senior leadership isn’t modeling the behaviors youre teaching, its going to create a credibility gap and kill adoption. If leaders preach one thing but their actions actually indicate otherwise, your training can do more harm than good. Thats why its important to ensure that leaders are active participants in training and the company holds them to the same (or higher) standards. Senior leaders need to model the way and visibly demonstrate desired behaviors, or they risk losing credibility. 3. Misdiagnosing the problem Training wont solve systemic problems. Mindfulness in an understaffed healthcare system wont cure burnout. Leadership workshops wont help if there isnt a clear strategy. Diagnose before you prescribe. Get to the root cause first, asking: Is this a skills gap or a systems gap? 4. Culture kills content Peter Drucker’s famous quote, Culture eats strategy for breakfast, applies here. If you dont align your training with performance management, promotion criteria, and daily operations, the old habits (which famously die hard) will persist. This is when culture often overrides training investments. To solve this, review and embed training goals into existing systems (like performance reviews and succession plans) so they stick. 5. Lack of clarity and consistency Employees need a consistent and coherent framework with clear applicability to their on-the-job behaviors. Switching between “radical candor” one month to crucial conversation only serves to create confusion if you dont incorporate them in your daily routines. So pick a framework and identify behaviors that you can measure, then stick with it and build it into daily practices. 6. No ROI on impact Measuring impact and behavior change is hard if you dont know what youre measuring. Without clear definitions and metrics, you cant see your training ROI. Understand before you launch what metrics will indicate program successis it engagement, retention, promotion readiness, improved team behaviors, customer outcomes? Get clarity, and start tracking from the outset. What high-performing organizations do differently High-performing organizations know that training is an ongoing system, not a one-off event. To do this, they align, act, and auditlinking training initiatives to strategic imperatives, ensuring these are delivering well and are well-embedded, and continue to measure training impact after completion of the program. With the plethora of information at our fingertips, its easy to be swept up in the latest workshop hype. However, when it comes to sustainable behavior change, there is no such thing as a quick win. If you want workplace training that works, you need to focus on consistent and intentional alignment. And over time, your organization will start to reap the results.
Category:
E-Commerce
Chipotle would like to be invited over for dinner. The Newport Beach, California-based fast-casual chain is going DIY mode with “Build-Your-Own Chipotle,” a takeout, digital-only menu item meant to feed four to six people. For Chipotle, the build-your-own meal is about delivering value and speed at a time when competition over consumer dollars for out-of-home meals is fierce and getting fiercer, and it benefits from a base emotion: guilt. The Build-Your-Own Chipotle meal comes with eight tortillas, two bags of chips, plus other toppings, as well as salsas, rice, and beans for about the price of six burritos. The chain says it can be ready to pick up in as little as 15 minutes. Customers can pick everything from their choice of protein to either guac or queso blancobut the BYOC meal is only available to order on the chain’s app or website. Building on what works The menu item aligns with Chipotle’s future plans to iterate on what’s already working. In the company’s July earnings call, the chain reported quarterly revenue of $3.1 billion, a growth of 3% year over year. But it also saw a 4% drop in its comparable sales and expects comparable sales to be flat for the rest of the year due to consumer volatility. In other words, the company is adding stores and growing, but existing stores are seeing sales fall. [Photo: Chipotle] The value of faster food at home Chipotle CEO Scott Boatwright said on the earnings call that the company’s value proposition of a burrito or burrito bowl that sells for less than $10 before taxes and fees in most markets was something they would build on. “Going forward, we will roll out new and creative ways to emphasize our value proposition while improving the benefit of our offering through better execution, menu innovation, and amplifying our rewards program,” he said. The chain’s new offering might create increased sales from existing customers by convincing someone who orders Chipotle for lunch once a week to pick it up for dinner, too. But the strategy here is about more than just the price. The DIY model also might make this takeout meal easier on the conscience. Just as Betty Crocker saw cake mix sales rise after requiring customers to add an egg, Chipotle might be able to sell even more burritos if it offers some as BYOC kit ingredients instead of a ready-to-eat product. It doesn’t feel like fast food if you make it at home. It’s family dinner.
Category:
E-Commerce
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