State of AI UX in 2026
As teams race to find ways to bring AI into their products, many discover that many AI features have very low retention, low usage and little to none trust in its accuracy and reliability. Many chatbots and assistants are painfully slow, repetitive, verbose and hard to make work — users have to meticulously explain to AI just what exactly they need — over and over and over again. So what exactly do teams do to fix it? How do we design AI experiences that people understand, value and perhaps even fall in love with? How fast is AI actually moving these days? How do we measure the quality of an AI experience? And how do we build confidence and trust in its use? Well, let’s find out! In this session with Vitaly Friedman, senior UX Lead with the European Parliament and also working with small and large clients around the world on embedding AI into their work, we’ll explore where users struggle and get annoyed, and when users succeed and become more effective. From quiet AI to AI-first, from voice UX to agentic experiences, from design patterns for building trust to technical constraints and limitations — and the look into what’s coming up next.
- UX
Speaker
Vitaly Friedman
UX Lead with Smashing Magazine and European Parliament
Vitaly loves beautiful content and does not give up easily. Born in Minsk, Belarus, he studied computer science and mathematics in Germany. While writing algebra proofs and preparing for software engineering at nights in the kitchen, at the same time he discovered passion for typography, interface design and writing. After working as a freelance designer and developer for 6 years, he co-founded Smashing Magazine back in 2006, a leading online magazine for designers and developers. His curiosity drove him from interface design to front-end to performance optimization to accessibility and back to user experience over all the years. Vitaly is the author, co-author and editor of Smashing Books (https://www.smashingmagazine.com/books), and a curator of Smashing Conferences (https://www.smashingconf.com). He is the UX lead with the European Parliament and Smashing Magazine (www.smashingmagazine.com) and front-end/UX consultant in Europe and abroad, working with large and small companies and organizations like Haufe-Lexware, Axel-Springer and others. He also runs Measure UX (https://measure-ux.com) and Smart Interface Design Patterns (https://smart-interface-design-patterns.com), friendly video courses on UX and design patterns, along with a live UX training for passionate UX and product designers.
