This September, we’re launching a brand new domain at Ambition Empower. AI Lab: Experimenting with tools and services is your space to form your own opinion about AI through hands-on experimentation, honest reflection, and a community doing the same work you are.
Afra Noubarzadeh, our very own Head of Professional Growth, will help us get a bit more acquainted with the new possibilities. I had a coffee with him to get his view on this new domain.
Hi Afra! You’re leading a brand new domain called AI Lab. What’s it really about?
– It’s about forming your own opinion. There’s so much noise out there right now, people who are all-in on every new service, and people who are completely dismissive. Both camps are just amplifying narratives rather than actually testing anything. I want us to slow down, try things together, and figure out what actually works for us as designers.
You’ve said you’re not an AI expert. Isn’t that a strange position for someone leading a domain about AI?
– I think it’s exactly the right position. I’m not here as a thought leader with all the answers. I feel the same uncertainty and excitement that most designers feel right now. And in this case it is actually a strength.
– When an expert presents tools from a stage, there’s a natural distance. You watch, you take notes, and then you go back to your job and wonder where to start. When someone who shares your uncertainty leads the exploration, the dynamic is completely different. We are all figuring it out together. There is no pressure to already know, no shame in being confused, and no one performing confidence they do not have. And given how fast things are moving right now, we think this is the most efficient way to keep up.
What does that look like in practice?
– We start by going deeper into the areas that people are focusing on, like research, which takes real work and has real pain points we all recognize. We map out the problems, look at which AI services promise to help, and then actually try them. The live sessions aren’t lectures or breakouts, they’re conversations about what happened when we used the services. Did it make our work better? Did it save time? Did it create new problems?
What do you hope people take away?
– A real, experience-based opinion about how AI fits into their work and their organization. Not hype, not fear. Right now most designers are either overwhelmed by the pace of change or forming opinions based on what they read rather than what they have tried. I want people to leave each topic having actually used something, reflected on it with others, and arrived at a conclusion that is genuinely their own.
Why does this feel important to you personally?
– Because I know what it feels like to wonder if you’re keeping up. Design processes have always evolved, but right now the waves are coming faster than most of us can handle. I want AI Lab to be a calm, familiar place in the middle of all that, where no one has to pretend they have it figured out.
Thank you Afra. I’m really looking forward to following your domain this fall!
