# Shaped by AI

> How Generative AI is transforming user behaviors, expectations, and the future of UX design

## The project goal
GenAI are changing how people expect to interact with *all* digital products, not just AI-based ones.

- If a user gets used to receiving immediate and personalized responses from ChatGPT, how will they perceive a traditional search engine?
- If they delegate the synthesis of complex information to an AI, what expectations will they have toward a corporate site's information architecture?
- If they naturally converse with a virtual assistant, how will they evaluate a structured form or menu navigation?

We are not just observing the adoption of a new technology, but a **potential change in the habits and mental models** people use to relate to digital systems in general.

The *Shaped by AI* project was created to investigate two aspects that follow from this observation.

### 1. Map the change
Scientifically document whether and how the massive adoption of GenAI is changing:

- **Users' mental models**: how they think a digital system "should" work, which cognitive metaphors they use, and what level of intelligence they expect from technology
- **Behavioral expectations**: preference for conversational interactions over structured ones, tolerance toward "static" or procedural interfaces, and expected response speed
- **Emerging needs**: new informational or relational needs, changing priorities such as efficiency versus exploration, and the evolution of trust and delegation toward automated systems

### 2. Guide the evolution of UX Design
Once user changes have been analysed, digital professionals need to adapt their practices accordingly. The operational goal is to produce a reference framework that allows different professional roles to:

- Update design assumptions: verify whether established principles retain the same validity or require recalibration
- Evolve methodologies and deliverables: understand whether personas, user journeys, wireframes, and other design artifacts should incorporate new dimensions of analysis
- Anticipate future expectations: design today while taking into account where user expectations are moving

## Digital Impacts
GenAI are shifting search, interfaces, and expectations toward new behaviours. The pages below collect the evolution directions described in the workshop *Shaped by AI — Phase 2: the impact on digital professions*, translated into concrete implications for the people who design and build digital products.

- **[What is happening](https://www.shaped-by-ai.com/en/impacts/what-is-happening/)** — observable phenomena, each with its evidence and the limits of that evidence declared.
- **[Decisions](https://www.shaped-by-ai.com/en/impacts/the-decisions-ai-forces/)** — the choices those phenomena make unavoidable, each with an effect that still appears if nobody decides.
- **[Impacts](https://www.shaped-by-ai.com/en/impacts/roles/)** — the same material reread from the standpoint of the person who has to do the work, function by function.
- **[Literature Review](https://www.shaped-by-ai.com/en/literature-review/)** — the curated collection of sources every page above rests on, as far as possible.

## Who the project is for

**Primary beneficiaries:** All professionals involved in designing and developing digital products - UX/UI Designers and Researchers, Product Managers, Information Architects, Service Designers, Content Strategists, Copywriters, Front-end Developers, SEO and Digital Marketing Specialists.

The project also involves business areas that make strategic decisions influenced by AI-related phenomena and direct the work of operational professionals.

**Scope of application:** The project analyzes the impact of GenAI on **all digital products and services**, with particular attention to those that **do not incorporate AI technologies** - informational websites, traditional e-commerce, mobile applications, management systems, B2B platforms, and digital public services.

If the average user spends hours every day on ChatGPT to study, work, or shop, when they return to a "normal" site they bring **new implicit expectations** with them. It is precisely on these "traditional" products that the impact could be most disruptive.

## Bibliography

The project aims to be grounded in a solid collaborative collection of scientific sources, case studies, and relevant articles on the topic. Explore the [**full bibliography**](https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/12EyghMUAHzvSFCpF3I-LWj8uJh_LkV8hzEiBUngtDlo/edit?gid=443347314#gid=443347314), which is constantly updated, or the [**Literature Review**](https://www.shaped-by-ai.com/en/literature-review/) section, which contains a curated collection of quotations from the most relevant articles on the topic.

## Join the project
The project is open to all interested professionals. You can contribute by suggesting sources, sharing case studies, participating in roundtables, or simply following updates.

[All the details are on the **Participate** page](https://www.shaped-by-ai.com/en/project/participate/).