Think you know your audience? Time to rethink. The modern 'user' isn't always that flesh-and-blood customer you've spent years studying. Enter AI agents—scripts, bots, and machine-learning models that are as much your product's 'user' as any human. They interact with your interfaces, call your APIs, make decisions on behalf of people, and generally shape experiences in the background.
UX for Machines and Mortals
Designing for a crowd that's part carbon-based and part code means: Structured Interactions (machines thrive on clarity; offer standardized formats and robust APIs), Human Readability (people still need to trust your product; keep language accessible), and Intelligent Error Handling (design guardrails that catch machine missteps before they break the user experience).
How to Keep It Real (Time)
When AIs and humans both drive your product, real-time becomes king. Embrace Contextual Adjustments (your system needs to sense when a bot is in control vs. when a person is) and Constant Feedback Loops (integrate analytics deeper into your design to feed AI algorithms continuous insights).
Collaboration (Not Competition)
AIs aren't the enemy; they're your new design collaborators. The challenge is to harness their speed and scale without losing the human spark that makes great experiences. Focus on Explainability First (break down complex AI decisions so people understand what's happening) and Adaptive Interfaces (let the AI handle repetitive tasks, freeing human users for strategic work).
Final Thoughts
Stop treating AI agents like invisible visitors. The new 'user' is part human, part machine—and your design approach needs to reflect that. Welcome to the hybrid world—where your user might be a living, breathing person at 9 a.m., then an AI agent by 9:05. Embrace the friction, adapt to the pace, and own the complexity.
Jared Huke
Founder