In this episode, Kurt Walecki shares the role of design in turning technology into value, and why responsible AI begins with literacy, knowing what belongs to humans and what belongs to machines.
What are humans uniquely good at, and where do machines excel? For Kurt Walecki, Fmr. GM & SVP of Design at Intuit, with over 30 years of experience, this is the defining question of the AI era.
In this episode of the Design Executive Outlook on Enterprise AI series, Kurt shares how successful innovation requires more than technology. It demands multidisciplinary collaboration, design, engineering, product, and data, all leaning in together with empathy for the customer. At the center of his philosophy is functional allocation: creativity, empathy, and judgment remain human strengths, while AI contributes speed, precision, and scale. The future lies in orchestrating both to amplify outcomes.
Kurt also addresses the reality many organizations face: AI is still narrow, constrained by tech debt and legacy systems, while the promise of predictive insights remains on the horizon. His concept of the “60/60 lean-in” reframes collaboration, showing how overlapping commitment and early co-creation accelerate trust and business impact.
From eliminating “human drudgery” to anticipating customer needs, Kurt maps the evolution of AI’s value, and calls on organizations to become more customer-centric, empathetic, and design-led in shaping the future of responsible AI.
Podcast Recorded in November 2024
