“From AI anxiety to AI agency: how design leaders can navigate the shift" ft. Melanie Yencken

With AI occupying every nook and cranny of the workplace, designers are having to change the very way they think about their jobs. Because today, anyone can build anything. But not everyone knows what should be built. In this episode of The Future Is Human by Mews, host Naomi Trickey sits down with Melanie Yencken, Senior Director of Product Design for Growth and Premium at LinkedIn, to explore what AI is really changing about design, leadership and human creativity. From the invisible craft behind great products to why speed can be dangerous without judgment, Melanie’s insights prove that empathy, taste and emotional intelligence are becoming the most valuable currency for designers as execution gets automated.

The promise of AI is speed - faster builds, faster decisions and faster execution. But just because something is done fast, doesn’t mean it’s done right - we’ve learnt at least this by now. So, what happens to the role of the designer? How must it change to ensure that solutions aren’t just built fast, but built to solve the right problems? In this episode of The Future is Human by Mews, host Naomi Trickey and Melanie Yencken, Senior Director of Product Design for Growth and Premium at LinkedIn, discuss.

What You’ll Learn:

Why design earns a seat at the table by translating customer obsession into business impact
How leaders can move teams from AI anxiety to AI agency through safe experimentation
Why speed without deep thinking creates products that look the same, feel the same and solve very little
How psychological safety, rest and boundaries help teams stay creative in a high-pressure AI era
Why empathy, taste, judgment, conflict resolution and influence are becoming even more valuable
How AI can lower barriers to entry for underrepresented builders IF leaders intentionally create access

The need for speed has driven some of the greatest human inventions. But with AI, it turns out, speed can be the very thing getting in the way of true progress. Tune in to find out how design teams can navigate this complex moment.