Service Design for an Agentic World: Designing Services When AI Becomes a Team Member

Most organizations are still using AI to optimize existing services. The next wave is fundamentally different: AI is becoming an active participant in service delivery, making decisions, collaborating with employees and interacting directly with customers. This changes what we design, how services evolve and what skills designers need.

Drawing from real projects, executive workshops and academic research, I will introduce a practical framework for designing services where humans and AI collaborate responsibly. We’ll explore new service blueprints, agent ecosystems, governance, trust and the changing role of designers.

Service Design is entering its biggest transformation since the discipline emerged. AI is changing how services are researched, designed, delivered, and continuously improved. This conversation wants to contribute practical experience from working with organizations that are already redesigning products and services around AI, sharing both what works and what doesn’t. Its goal is to help service designers move beyond using AI as a productivity tool and start designing for a world where humans and intelligent systems collaborate. We have reached a point where AI is no longer an emerging technology but an operational reality. Organizations are redesigning customer journeys, internal operations, and business models faster than design methods are evolving. This creates both enormous opportunities and significant risks. Service designers have a unique responsibility to ensure these new systems remain human-centered, trustworthy, and valuable. This conversation cannot wait because the decisions we make today will shape how billions of people interact with AI-powered services over the coming decade.