UX Sweden
Meet the speakers
Pontus Wärnestål
Head of Pedagogy  Ambition Group
Pontus Wärnestål is an award-winning designer, researcher, and educator with over 20 years of experience at the intersection of human-centered design, emerging technologies, and AI. With a PhD in Computational Linguistics and a background spanning academia, startups, and global agencies, Pontus has led initiatives across UX, service design, and AI innovation. He is the author of the book “Designing AI-Powered Services”, has published 40+ research papers, and frequently speaks on how design can shape meaningful, responsible AI systems. Currently Head of Pedagogy at Ambition Group and Deputy Professor at Halmstad University, he is passionate about designing futures where people and machines collaborate effectively.
Designing AI-Powered Experiences: From Insight to Initiative
As AI becomes a core part of digital services, designers face new challenges and opportunities. In this talk, Pontus Wärnestål explores how we can design for predictive and adaptive user experiences, and what happens when services begin to take initiative themselves. Drawing from real-world projects, Pontus will share concrete examples along with practical tips for research, prototyping, and evaluation. The talk also covers some challenges with AI as a design material and will give perspectives that help you design AI-powered services that are not only intelligent, but also ethical, usable, and valuable. No technical background required – just a curious design mind.

Meet the speakers

Heidi Ettanen
Design operations lead
H&M
What’s DesignOps - how can it help?
As the design field evolves, so does the way we work. Heidi Ettanen, who established the DesignOps practice at H&M and co-leads the DesignOps Assembly’s Sweden chapter, will share why DesignOps matters, how it can strengthen your organization, and what it takes to get started.
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Per Axbom
UX designer, educator and writer
😇😈 Ethics as a Driver of Design Innovation
Moral concerns are often seen as barriers to innovation—but in fact, they unlock it. Per Axbom explores how ethical design can broaden perspectives, spark entirely new services, and turn compassion into a strategic advantage.
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Victor Bergh Alvergren
UX Designer
Hogia
Workshop: From Business Goals to User Goals
Tired of hearing your user-centered ideas “don’t align with the business”? The Goal Alignment Method shows how user and business goals can work together – with a shared focus and clear success metrics. A practical way to get everyone on the same page.
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Mai Lee Yap and Maria Marklund
UX designer and DesignOps Lead
HiQ Göteborg and Hogia
Case study: How to land a unique Career Development Framework for design organizations - that actually does the job
Design teams often struggle with design maturity and career growth. This case shows how Hogia Group built a framework that boosts both designer engagement and organizational understanding of user-centered design.
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Pontus Wärnestål
Head of Pedagogy
Ambition Group
Designing AI-Powered Experiences: From Insight to Initiative
What happens when digital services start making decisions on their own? In this talk, Pontus Wärnestål dives into designing predictive, adaptive, and initiative-taking experiences – with real-world examples and hands-on tips. No tech background needed – just a curious design mind.
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