SydDT #127: The Human Loop – Keeping the Customer at the Core of AI

Panel on how to balance AI's speed with actual user needs, featuring product leaders who'll share what changes when research meets generative models.

Four product and design leaders who've actually shipped AI products take the stage to cut through the hype: Tarra van Amerongen from Thoughtworks, Alex Zinoviev (who founded GenAI Lab), Riley Coleman, and Kristin de la Fuente. They'll dig into the real tension between AI's speed and what users actually need, covering how user research has to change when generative models are in play, designing for trust when the system itself is a black box, and why designers are becoming system orchestrators rather than pixel-pushers. This is SydDT's 11th birthday panel, so it's a good-sized community crowd with plenty of space for pushback and real questions. If you're building products with AI and tired of the startup fantasy version, this is where people doing the work talk about what actually matters.