UX Sweden

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.