As AI systems move beyond content generators and chatbots toward agentic tools that can prioritise, decide, and act on our behalf, UX faces a fundamental shift. Even before full autonomy arrives, today’s design patterns, automation, recommendations, and delegation, are already shaping how power and agency move from people to systems.
In this session, Sam explores what it means to design trustworthy agentic experiences, focusing on the moments where support quietly becomes delegation. Rather than leaning into hype or doomsday narratives, the talk offers a practical, design-led lens for understanding how autonomy, transparency, and control show up in real products and how small UX decisions can either preserve or erode user agency over time.
Using relatable scenarios, emerging patterns, and a simple framework called ACT for Agentic (Autonomy, Clarity, Take-back), attendees will learn how to evaluate agentic behaviour, spot early warning signs of problematic design, and make more responsible choices as AI systems begin to act with increasing independence.
This session is designed for UX professionals who want clarity, nuance, and practical tools for navigating agentic AI – without needing to be AI specialists.
After this webinar, participants will be able to:
– Distinguish between assistive and agentic UX patterns, and understand why that difference matters for trust and responsibility
– Apply the ‘ACT for Agentic’ design lens to evaluate when and how AI systems should act on a user’s behalf
– Recognise early warning signs such as invisible delegation, illusion of control, and silent drift in everyday products
– Design for calibrated trust, ensuring users understand what a system is doing, why it’s doing it, and how to intervene
– Use practical heuristics in design critiques and product discussions to keep agentic AI experiences empowering rather than manipulative
