UX Evolved - Strategically fusing UX+AI

What if the clearest view of where UX is headed isn't inside our industry — but outside of it? Dr. Travis Bell spent 12 years in broadcast journalism before stepping back to study what happens when technology reshapes a profession from the inside out. As an Associate Professor of Digital and Sports Media at the University of South Florida and a researcher focused on media framing, he's wat...

Whitney Tolley was our first-ever returning guest on UX Evolved — and for good reason. When she joined us last time, she left us with a line that stuck: if designers keep seeing themselves as UI generators, they'll be replaced. A lot has happened since then. Figma MCP is real. Agentic workflows are real. And Whitney — Design Director at Cloudbeds — has been living inside all of it. In this con...

"The biggest thing PMs get wrong about UX? That it's just about the UI. It's actually about psychology." Blanca Barragan — PM at Versapay, Forbes Technology Council member — knows that the best product decisions happen when there's healthy tension between disciplines. In this episode, we get into what actually happens when PMs and UX leads collaborate on AI products. What we...

Jen Blatz drops 26 bold predictions for UX in 2026 - and they're not comfortable ones. As a Principal UX Researcher at BECU and host of BlatzChatz, Jen brings a journalism background and "troublemaker" mindset to dissecting where our profession is really headed. We dig into the hard truths: Why resilience is now the ultimate skill. Whether personal branding is mandatory for survival....

The ground is shifting under our profession faster than ever. In this episode, I'm sharing three data-backed predictions about what's happening to UX in 2026 - not someday, but THIS YEAR. ⏱️ TIMESTAMPS: 00:00 - Introduction02:00 - Prediction 1: Visual Polish is Table Stakes, Business Impact is the Differentiator06:00 - Prediction 2: The Great UX Salary Split10:00 - Prediction 3: The 10x De...

Amit Popat built a beautiful AI product that nobody bought. Then he sat in a hotel watching managers use whiteboards to make pricing decisions in 2019. That's when everything changed. From Cambridge math to building EasyJet's personalization engine to leading AI/ML at Cloudbeds, Amit has learned the hard way that cool technology doesn't win—solving real problems does. We dive into his...

Dan Zola (1,000+ user interviews, Google) on what changes with AI research tools—and what doesn't. Body language, organizational trust, and knowing which follow-up question matters most. The skills worth investing in now.

AI can analyze thousands of user interviews in seconds. So what's left for human UX researchers? Miwako Zosel explains why she's learning SQL and Python, where AI actually helps research (and where it dangerously fails), and why "research is glue"—the most human skill in UX. For researchers wondering if their career has a future: this is your episode. Guest: Miwako Zosel, UX Rese...

Two years before ChatGPT became a household name, Whitney Tolley was already seeing the cracks in how UX teams approached design thinking. Writing for the Cloudbeds Technology Blog in early 2023 , she challenged the conventional wisdom around the Double Diamond —that beloved framework UX practitioners have relied on for nearly two decades. In this conversation, Whitney reveals how AI has transform...

Adam Howell launched Accomplice in 2021—one of the first generative AI design tools, before Midjourney or DALL-E 2. Now as Principal PM for AI at Versapay, he's seen both sides: building AI tools AND integrating them into real UX workflows. In this episode of UX Evolved, Adam breaks down what's actually different about the AI disruption versus the Web 2.0 and mobile shifts he lived through at JotS...

Every UX professional is asking the same question right now: Is AI going to evolve our craft, or replace it entirely? I'm Eric Ellis, and I've spent twenty years designing through every major technology shift—from static wireframes to AI-powered experiences. Here's what I know: UX was never just about the tools. It's about understanding human needs and translating them into experie...