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Design’s future may depend less on polishing screens and more on shaping services, business value, community participation, and trust in AI-mediated interactions. That is the argument made by four design and business leaders in a WIRED sponsored feature produced in partnership with Huge. Their views are forecasts, not independently verified predictions of industry-wide change.
Why design may matter in more than the interface
A digital interface is only one part of an experience. The choices behind a service, the way an organization responds to people, and the behavior of software can all involve design. In the sponsored feature, the interviewees describe four possible shifts: design reaching sectors that have invested less in digital experience, agencies tying fees more closely to outcomes, brands making room for community contributions, and designers shaping experiences mediated by AI agents.
These are distinct perspectives rather than a single consensus or a measured account of what the industry is already doing. The feature does not establish how widely any of the changes have taken hold.
Could digital design spread to more traditional sectors?
Dan Kenger, chief design officer at Hims & Hers, expects demand for digital design to grow in areas such as healthcare, government, legal services, and insurance. He points to rising consumer expectations and greater choice as pressures that could lead organizations to improve digital experiences.
Kenger also identifies reasons adoption may be difficult: cultural resistance, a lack of leadership sponsorship, and perceived regulatory barriers. His examples describe a possible direction, not a quantified shift across those industries. For organizations in these fields, the underlying question is whether people can get through a service clearly and effectively—not simply whether its website or app looks modern.
How might AI change design-agency pricing?
Josh Campo, CEO of Huge, argues that billing by time can make it difficult to price strategy and ideas, especially if AI reduces the time required for some execution work. He puts the distinction bluntly: “’Done’ is quickly becoming ‘nearly free.’” Campo also says, “The ideas, the thinking: That’s always been the hard part to put a price on.”
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The WIRED feature reports that Huge is piloting fees tied to value creation. Campo says 70 percent of fees in the described structure are tied to value creation. That is a company-specific figure from his account of the pilot, not an industry benchmark or evidence that most agencies price work this way.
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The proposed shift is from charging primarily for time spent toward charging in closer relation to the value created. Whether that model works in a particular engagement would depend on how the parties define, measure, and allocate value; the feature does not provide a general pricing formula.
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Can a brand leave room for its community?
Andreina Carrillo, VP of design at NBA Take-Two Media, describes brand design as a system that can invite participation rather than impose a fixed visual rulebook. She says, “For us, community shapes the brand as much as the brand shapes the community.”
The feature points to the YouTube travel show NOMAD as an example. In Carrillo’s approach, designers establish initial parameters, watch how a community participates, and adjust the system. This shifts some of the designer’s work from specifying every expression to creating boundaries that allow people to contribute across content, gaming, and live experiences. It is a reported company example and a point of view, not proof that brands generally work this way.
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Will AI agents make interface design obsolete?
Donald Chesnut, chief design officer at Candescent, predicts that AI agents could complete tasks without people navigating conventional app interfaces. “There’ll be far fewer interfaces than there are today,” he says. In that scenario, some design work could move away from screen layouts and toward curation, data analysis, technical systems, and explaining what an agent did.
Chesnut does not argue that design disappears. He sees trust and experience design remaining important even when the interaction is mediated by an agent: “You might not be designing interfaces, but the role of a designer is, and always has been, how you build trusted experiences, and even when they happen through agents those experiences still need to be designed.”
That forecast puts the emphasis on questions beyond appearance: Can a person understand what the agent did? Can they trust the result? Is the system’s behavior understandable? The feature offers Chesnut’s perspective, not evidence that agents will replace conventional interfaces across software.
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What these forecasts do—and do not—establish
Together, the four perspectives describe a broader conception of design: visual craft remains relevant, but design may also shape services, business relationships, community participation, and the behavior of software systems. The sponsored feature does not independently test these predictions, report a representative measure of adoption, or establish a single direction for the profession. Its claims should be read as attributed views from the interviewees and their organizations.
Read the WIRED sponsored feature produced in partnership with Huge.
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