Introduction

Welcome to Hypercurrents—where design, AI, and innovation intersect

This month, we explore one of the most undervalued forces shaping technology and design today: craft. Whether it’s in AI-driven products, brand-building, or digital experiences, the difference between what’s forgettable and what lasts is often found in the unseen details…

What I’m reading & watching

• Futurescape: 25 Key Trends for the Next Quarter-Century
• Why managers should give feedback on work output
• What’s Next for Design? Predictions for 2025 to 2040
• It’s time for design to think less and feel more
• How can we escape the ‘infinity loop?
• The Case Against AI-Generated Users
• Here's a great pitching resource for writers
• Matt Klein's Meta Trends 2025 is essential reading
• DeepSeek: when UI doesn’t matter
• Designing, developing, and deploying a web app entirely using AI
• Designing for the AI future
• AI Hallucinations: What Designers Need to Know
• People are starting to trust AI more – and view it as more human-like

On X...

A couple of notes on "Craft"

In a time when AI generates content in seconds and no-code tools promise instant results, craft, the careful attention to detail and user needs, has become more valuable than ever. Not despite automation, but because of it.

Craft has evolved beyond traditional artisanship into something less tangible but just as meaningful. In the digital world, it's no longer about shaping physical materials. It's about the orchestration of experiences. It’s found in the perfectly timed animation that makes an interaction feel effortless, the intuitive interface that anticipates user needs before they arise, and the optimization that ensures seamless performance, even under stress.

Great craft, whether in digital products or physical design, is about more than functionality. It’s about resonance. A well-crafted experience doesn’t just work; it makes people feel something.

It values people's time and attention, builds trust through reliability, and anticipates future needs with thoughtful, scalable solutions. More than anything, it reflects a level of care that makes users feel seen, solving problems and sparking delight before they even recognize the need.

This level of care transforms the ordinary into something that feels personal, even inevitable. It’s the difference between a product that simply functions and one that feels like it was made just for you. When done right, craft is invisible yet unmistakable. It’s present in the way an app never lags, an interface feels natural from the first touch, or how a system adapts gracefully under strain.

In the end, people don’t just hire a brand or product for what it does; they hire it for how it makes them feel. A well-crafted experience turns a tool into something indispensable. It elevates the journey from merely completing a task to actively enjoying the process. So much so that people want to share it with others.

As The Macintosh Spirit famously put it:

The competitive moat of care

A year ago, many dismissed Jasper AI as just a “thin GPT wrapper.” The skepticism was understandable. AI models were evolving rapidly, and many assumed differentiation would remain at the infrastructure level. But that assumption ignored a fundamental truth: value doesn’t come from raw capability alone. It comes from how technology is shaped into something people can trust, adopt, and integrate into their workflows.

Dynamic User Experiences (DUX)

With new AI tools emerging almost daily, their role in the design process is constantly evolving. While generative UI tools may not be fundamentally reshaping design itself, they hold immense potential for enabling Dynamic User Experiences (DUX).

One advocate for this approach is Fast Company guest writer Peter Smart, who envisions DUX components as “based on blocks—small, modular components of an experience, whether content, function, or User Interface (UI)—that can be dynamically assembled and adjusted in real-time by AI.” (Fast Company, June 9, 2024)

This modular concept follows the approach of tools like Galileo AI but avoids their misunderstanding of design workflows and details. Indeed, though these simple, stackable components may seem limiting for creating UI, they're ideal for dynamically remaking and adjusting interfaces. Implementing DUX in such a way requires:

1. Human-designed foundation: Skilled designers create core UI elements, ensuring consistency and distinctiveness.
2. AI-powered assembly: AI is trained to dynamically assemble these elements based on user interactions.
3. Maintained coherence: A generic backbone prevents the interface from becoming chaotic, allowing users to build intuition and muscle memory.

This approach allows for interfaces that are both feature-rich and intuitively simple. It's a delicate balance: the UI must be flexible enough to adapt to user needs, yet consistent enough to remain learnable and familiar.

When done well, this approach leads to a fluid, intuitive design language. It's not about eliminating all friction but about creating interfaces that feel natural and responsive to user needs. Such interfaces can dramatically improve the user experience by presenting only what's needed at any given moment, adapting to the user's context and goals without depriving them of vital anchor points.

The same principle applies across all design disciplines. A font library doesn’t make a great brand. A set of UI components doesn’t make an intuitive product. The true differentiator isn’t just access to tools. It's how they're thoughtfully applied. Craft—the fusion of technical excellence, user experience, and deep human understanding—is what turns raw technology into something remarkable.

For AI, craft happens at the application layer. Business leaders aren’t concerned with the underlying model; they care about outcomes—growth, efficiency, scaled creativity, and deeper insights. The real advantage isn’t just having access to a model. It's knowing how to integrate it into workflows, structure enterprise data around it, and create an experience that drives impact.

Over time, infrastructure becomes a commodity. The real value shifts to those who design the best applications, build trust, and fit naturally into people’s lives. That’s why Jasper is now used by over 20% of the Fortune 500. Not just because it provides AI but because it delivers AI-powered experiences that meet businesses exactly where they need them.

The model is just the foundation; the real product is how you apply it.

The lesson? The model is just the beginning. The real product is how you apply it.

The unscalable advantage

Here lies the paradox: while technology enables mass production, the highest forms of craft remain unscalable. Generative AI can produce logos in seconds, but it can’t craft an identity that resonates for decades. No-code tools can assemble an app, but they can’t replicate the nuanced understanding of human behavior that makes great products feel inevitable.

This is precisely what makes craft such a powerful competitive advantage. As the barriers to creation lower, the ability to design experiences that feel deeply considered becomes increasingly rare. It’s the difference between something people use and something people love.

The brands that endure don’t just keep pace with trends; they cultivate craft as a long-term strategy. In an age of algorithmic abundance, human attention is a luxury. The real winners won’t be those who produce the most but those who create something that feels truly rare: something that feels like it was made specifically for them.

The rise of AI-driven Mediocrity

Here’s the defining paradox of our time: as it becomes easier and faster to “look good,” it becomes exponentially harder to create work that “feels good.” We’re entering an era where AI can generate polished, professional-looking output that checks all the conventional boxes. Yet, often fails to make people care.

This is creating a sharp divide in the creative landscape. The middle ground is disappearing, leaving us with two paths: mass-produced mediocrity or genuine excellence. The choice isn’t just about quality; it’s about the fundamental approach to creation itself.

This is creating a sharp divide in the creative landscape. The middle ground is disappearing, leaving us with two paths: mass-produced mediocrity or genuine excellence. The choice isn’t just about quality; it’s about the fundamental approach to creation itself.

The future of craft

As AI accelerates production and automation lowers the barriers to creation, craft is becoming more valuable—not less. In a world where anything can be generated instantly, what truly stands out isn’t what’s made but what feels considered.

Craft isn't just about perfecting form or function; it’s about creating something that resonates. The best design often goes unnoticed. Not because it lacks impact, but because it works so seamlessly that it feels inevitable, effortless, as if it was always meant to be there.

The defining challenge of our time isn’t making more but making meaning. As generative tools remove friction from creation, the role of designers is shifting from producing endless variations to curating coherence. Craft is no longer about perfecting individual elements but orchestrating entire experiences that feel effortless, intuitive, and human.

This is the real competitive moat. AI accelerates the average. Craft elevates the exceptional.

But true craft isn’t about speed or scale; it’s about care. The kind of deep consideration that can’t be automated, rushed, or commoditized. A well-crafted experience carries an unmistakable sense that someone has already thought deeply about the user. Solving problems before they arise, anticipating needs before they’re even recognized.

The brands that endure won’t be those that generate the most, but those that make people feel something rare: that this was made just for them.

The future of craft isn’t about resisting technology but shaping it. It’s about designing the future with intention, ensuring that in a world flooded with content, what truly matters still stands out. Because at the end of the day, people don’t remember the sheer volume of what was made. They remember how it made them feel.

Conclusion

In an age of instant creation and mass production, craft will be the ultimate differentiator. Not because it’s hard to create something that looks professional, but because it’s becoming increasingly rare to create something that makes people care.

The irony is clear: as technology makes creation more accessible, the human elements of craft become more valuable. The future belongs not to those who simply ship the fastest or scale the widest, but to those who take the time to make their work feel irreplaceably human. This is the paradox of modern craft: in a world of automation, human attention and care are the ultimate luxury.

So in summary:

• In an age of mass production and instant creation, craft is differentiation. It’s the unseen details that make a product feel considered, intentional, and irreplaceable.
• Craft isn’t just about aesthetics—it’s about trust. A well-designed experience signals care, and care builds loyalty.
• The irony: technology scales efficiency, but the highest forms of craft often remain unscalable. AI can generate, but it can’t imbue meaning. No-code tools can assemble, but they can’t anticipate needs with the same nuance.
• The best brands don’t just ship—they refine. They don’t chase trends—they deepen their identity over time. Craft is their long game.
• In a world of automation, human attention becomes a luxury. The brands that win won’t be the ones that produce the most, but the ones that make people feel something rare: that this was made for them.