- Save the Date for -
- Friday, September 25, 2026 -
What Is UXPALOOZA?
(you-ex-puh-loo-zuh)
noun
A celebration exploring the intersections of UX and AI.- UXPA International
2026
UXPALOOZA Speakers
Check out some of our invited global experts in
UX and AI.
We will announce
more speakers soon!
Level up your UX value by learning how to responsibly use AI and enhance your UX career.
Coming soon!
Explore trends.
Hear from AI experts on best practices, methods, and tools for UX innovation and success.
Leave inspired.
Obtain practical insights and resources to achieve your UX career goals no matter your career stage.
Gain connections.
Connect with researchers, designers, strategists, and leaders in UX during our dedicated networking session.
Sponsorship Opportunities
Engage with a global community of user experience professionals!
Coming soon!
Have questions? Email us at uxpalooza@uxpa.org.
2025 Speakers
Take a look at some of our invited global experts in
UX and AI from our 2025 annual one-day virtual summit.
Jared Johnson
Lead UX Consultant
Solution Design Group
Jared Johnson is an Experience Design Consultant with over 10 years of experience building digital products & services for corporate enterprise organizations to start-ups. His professional expertise spans traditional experience design, interface design, usability testing, and digital product strategy.
His experience spans the industries of finance, healthcare, construction, agriculture, and legal, and he has worn many hats ranging from Production Artist and Graphic Designer to Interactive Designer and Experience Strategist. He has been featured on technology podcasts, written blogs highlighting best practices when building digital products, presented to dozens of technology professionals on industry trends, curated design topics + speakers for local conferences, and contributed to panel discussions for events like World Usability Day.
Jared is highly engaged in the local Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota design community where he lives as well as supports regional, national, and international chapters of collaborative communities of professionals like UXPA, Nielsen Norman Group, and Minnesota Digital Services.
Gurusha Raskar
UX Researcher & AI Strategist
AI/ML Team at Apple
Gurusha Raskar is a strategic AI and UX leader focused on intent-driven, human-centered innovation. She works on the AI/ML team at Apple, bringing a researcher’s lens to shaping technologies that balance technical rigor with human insight. Earlier at Deloitte, she led more than 250 projects for Fortune 500 clients, and her award-winning work with MIT’s PatchCheck Hackathon aimed to impact over 345 million users. She has also contributed to Google’s Solve for X and Akamai’s Adventure Catalyst, and champions inclusivity through mentoring women in STEM and sharing her learnings with the next generation of innovators.
Sean Savage
Product Design Lead
AAA
Sean J. Savage is a father of two and an AI product design leader with 20 years of professional experience leading teams to success through user-centered product and service design, from New York City to Shanghai to San Francisco.
He’s worked for AAA, Intel, Frog Design, Adaptive Path, Jawbone, GE Digital, Vanguard, UCSF, and Stanford Medicine. He has a Master’s degree in Information Management & Systems from UC Berkeley.
His writing has been published in The Washington Post, Wired, and the Chicago Tribune. He occasionally writes very short autobiographies in the third person.
Sarah Thompson
Director of Behavioral Design
Live Neuron Labs
Sarah Thompson is a behavioral scientist and the Director of Behavioral Design at Live Neuron Labs, where she advises Fortune 500 companies and nonprofits like the American Heart Association on designing products, communications, and services that work with human behavior, not against it.
With a background in Clinical Psychology and a Master’s in Cognitive Semiotics, Sarah brings deep expertise in how people think, feel, and decide — and applies it to real-world challenges across healthcare, sustainability, financial wellbeing, education, and tech.
She regularly consults with organizations, trains teams, and speaks on how behavioral insights can elevate UX, CX, marketing, and AI experiences, especially in a fast-changing digital world.
John Whalen
Lead, Psychological Insights & Innovation
Brilliant Experience
I lead Insights & Innovation at Brilliant Experience, where I help global brands understand the psychology behind their customers’ behaviors and bring successful products to market.
Initially skeptical about AI, my team and I conducted extensive “AI vs. Human Researchers” studies to pinpoint precisely where AI-enhanced research excels—and where human judgment remains irreplaceable. I became convinced that AI will transform how research will be done.
Now I regularly interview pioneering founders in the AI-for-UX space and leverage the latest AI tools to deliver rapid, scaled, global insights for top brands.
With a PhD from Johns Hopkins, I combine academic rigor with real-world experience and pragmatism to help you learn to harness cutting-edge AI tools and make AI your powerful partner.
Claudia BruckschwaigerManaging Partner
swohlwahr
After founding an international startup, project experience in software design, digital strategy, and personnel service in a managerial position, Claudia now works on strategic digitization projects with startups, SMEs, and corporations as a managing partner of swohlwahr, a consultancy focusing on the human-centered organization. She is also a lecturer in interaction design at a vocational college in Salzburg, is co-author of the books, “Soft Skills for UX Professionals” and “User Experience Design und Sustainability,” and is vice president of the International Accreditation Program of UX Professionals (IAPUX).
Jared Huke
CEO
Daito Design
Jared Huke is the CEO of Daito Design and Lumara Vision Corporation, where he leads innovation at the intersection of enterprise UX, AI integration, and spatial computing. With over two decades of experience, Jared has spearheaded core business transformation projects for numerous Fortune 100 companies, particularly in the energy, logistics, and industrial sectors.
An alumnus of The University of Texas at Austin with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Design, Jared also served as a lecturer at the university’s Center for Integrated Design, teaching courses like “Introduction to Design Thinking” to interdisciplinary students.
As the President and Founder of UXPA Netherlands, he has been instrumental in fostering professional development and accreditation for UX practitioners.
Based in Amsterdam, Jared continues to drive innovation while balancing his professional endeavors with personal passions, including ceramics and family life.
Eunji Jeong
Director of Strategy
Designed Connected
Eunji is a design leader, mentor, and community builder who helps organizations navigate the intersection of AI and human-centered design. As Director of Strategy at Designed Connected, she combines hands-on design leadership with business acumen to build scalable design processes and future-proof organizations for the AI era.
Through mentoring hundreds of designers across career stages, Eunji recognized the need for stronger professional community support, which led her to found Designed Minds, a global network that empowers design professionals to advance their careers and take ownership of their growth.
A sought-after voice on AI’s impact on design, Eunji writes and speaks about the transformation of the designer role and the opportunities for human creativity. Her passion for translating complex concepts into actionable strategies has helped design teams and businesses proactively embrace change and deliver meaningful solutions to real-world challenges.
Markus FlückigerUX Consultant
Zühlke Engineering AG
Markus Flückiger is a UX Consultant working at Zühlke, Switzerland. He bridges the gap between users and technology, in software and product development, and consults clients in how to integrate UX in agile development. Markus lectures UX and requirements engineering at the University of Applied Science in Bern and is a member of Council of the Master in HCID at the HSR. Markus also co-wrote one handy book, UX and Usability Kompakt, and one a bit longer about the brain’s perspective on software engineering.
Adrienne Guillory
COO
Usability Sciences
Adrienne Guillory is the President and COO of Usability Sciences, a leading UX research firm, and Co-founder of Dallas Black UX. With over 15 years of experience in human-centered design, research, and strategy, she helps organizations unlock meaningful customer insights to shape better digital experiences.
A keynote speaker, mentor, and former Design Thinking educator, Adrienne is passionate about the intersection of Ai, design, and user research, bringing both rigor and empathy to conversations about the future of technology.
Jen Romano
Executive Coach
UXR Coach
Jen Romano, Ph.D., is an award-winning UX Research Leader with over 25 years of experience spanning academia, industry, and government. As a manager and director at top organizations like Google, Facebook, and Bridgewater Associates, she bridges the gap between scientific rigor and industry demands.
Committed to fostering the next generation of researchers, Jen founded UXR Coach to empower aspiring researchers. Her unique UXR Intensive Training Retreats in Hawaii give professionals real-world experience conducting research in the field with live clients.
As prior President. of UXPA, she founded a global mentorship program and an education short course series, and teaches at UC Berkeley and the University of Maryland. Jen has authored four books, cementing her reputation for delivering high-quality work with both speed and precision.
Clara Kliman-SilverUX Research Manager
Google
Clara Kliman-Silver is a UX strategist based in New York City. Currently, she works as a UX research manager on the Material Design team at Google and collaborates with local UX communities, including Ladies That UX. Her research focuses on the emergent role of artificial intelligence in UX design, metrics frameworks for measuring product development, and developer experience.
Andrew Schall
UX Research Leader, DTXD
ServiceNow
Andrew Schall has over 20 years of experience as a UX leader, researcher, and strategist. He has collaborated with renowned organizations such as Mayo Clinic, Citibank, Harley Davidson, The New York Times, National Institutes of Health, Office Depot, and Southwest Airlines. He currently leads a rockstar team of UX researchers at ServiceNow, focusing on creating the next generation of AI-powered tools for employee experiences.
Andrew loves to share his knowledge and insights with the UX community. He is the author of the new book, The Persona and Journey Map Playbook. He co-authored the book, Eye Tracking in User Experience Design and contributed to the 3rd edition of the book, Measuring the User Experience. As the Director of Publications for UXPA, he oversees the Journal of User Experience and UX Magazine. Andrew is an experienced instructor teaching courses in UX and Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) as an adjunct faculty member at the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA).
Beth Chappell
Senior Manager of Product DesignArticulate
Beth Chappell is a Senior Manager of Product Design at Articulate, where she leads cross-functional teams in AI and creator tools spanning product design and UX research. With more than a decade of experience shipping human-centered products at organizations including Dell, IBM, WHOOP, and Articulate, Beth focuses on shaping how people build meaningful experiences with the help of intelligent systems. Her leadership blends strategic vision with empathy, fostering collaborative teams that navigate uncertainty and deliver impact. She believes that great design respects both emotion and execution, and that unlocking human potential within teams is a fundamental driver of product success.
Jason Mesut
FounderResonant
Jason Mesut helps people pursue positive futures. Navigating the uncertainties of their present. For the benefit of themselves, their organisations, and broader society. He does this through executive coaching, community leadership, strategic consulting, and his signature ‘Shaping’ workshops.
Jason has spent over 20 years working within the UX, Design, and Innovation consulting worlds for leading organisations. Mentoring, leading, and managing designers to do the work of their lives for the benefit of others.
He now runs his own coaching, design, and innovation consultancy, Resonant, coaches through the Coaching with Chemistry network and also co-hosts events for IxDA London.
Llewyn Paine, Ph.D.
AI ConsultantLlewyn Paine Consulting
Dr. Llewyn Paine is an AI consultant and product strategist with over 15 years’ experience in emerging tech innovation–from intelligent agents and physical AI at Microsoft, to experimental media for Disney.
She is the curator of Rosenfeld Media’s Designing with AI conference and has spoken on responsible AI for research at the Library of Congress and other leading institutions.
Her best-selling workshops have been called a “voice of reason check on AI hype”–helping product leaders and teams make defensible, strategic decisions about AI.
Leo Hoar
Founder & CEOUXR Institute
Leo is the founder of the UXR Institute, a community of research leaders who teach advanced UX research courses. After a career as an academic and administrator, he did research for a variety of early-stage startups, then held roles as manager and principal UX researcher. He’s also the host of Tiny Research Wins, a podcast focused on teaching simple ways for researchers to increase their impact.