Balancing Power, People, and Progress in an AI-driven World

In this talk, I aim to explore the nexus of power concentration within big tech, AI-driven automation, and the ramifications on the tech job market, with a specific focus on design operations and adjacent roles. By examining the underlying dynamics behind power, the recent tech layoffs, and the rapid AI takeover of many aspects of our professional and personal life, I seek to understand the broader impact to the tech industry and the evolution of the profession of Design Operations. This discourse serves as a call for mechanisms to create the pathways for rapid learning and unlearning, and keep pushing designers to reinvent themselves.