The design goal for tech shouldn’t be invisibility
In conversation with Amer Iqbal
New Interview: Amer Iqbal on Design Strategy at the dawn of AI’s Era
Jony Ive joined OpenAI in May 2025 to mastermind an iPhone-killer AI device. His mission has always been to create products that "disappear" in terms of complexity, while still being advanced technologically.
I discuss that the ultimate design goal for technology should not be invisibility with innovation consultant Amer Iqbal, the brains behind 5 Ways to Innovate. David Foster Wallace described “learning how to think” as the truest form of human freedom.
A timely discussion when tech stocks have just been hit by concerns over the future of the AI boom. Traders and investors are increasingly spooked and resulting narrative arbitrage by Tech’s hyperscalers.
“When the profit motive becomes unmoored from the purpose motive, bad things happen.”
Amer is spot-on relating this quote to the prevailing AI outlook in business. MIT Researchers said “95% of organisations are getting [claiming] zero return” from their investments in AI. Why is this happening? The current enterprise AI game plan is typified as intelligence x velocity, without time taken and direction of travel.
That's like firing a rail gun through 1,000 metres of treacle.
Without overhauling data, systems and design, the effect of AI will appear to be invisible.
There is huge inertia in the global system and a lack of radical ideas - the Human Development Index has stalled since 2023, Technical Breakthroughs have been in sharp decline since the 1960s. Enterprise needs to be part of a concerted effort to redesign business for AI and shouldn’t do it alone, for true innovation to bounce back.
Revive partnerships focused on co-created research between business, academia and scientific institutions.
Counter populism's siege on science, strengthening science communication and advocating for evidence-based policymaking.
Create accessible forums that promote interdisciplinary research and human-centred design to bring science, philosophy and humanities back from populist-inflamed acrimony.
More emphasis on quality investing, especially small-cap companies and specialised enablers that are pivotal to creating a healthy marketplace - quarterly reporting dominates money-making.
More scrutiny over earnings engineering and corporate stock buybacks, which are skimming innovation value and R&D to artificially boost earnings per share.
Leaders like Altman, Musk (et al) agitate markets like a milk frother - keep track of how many outlandish market promises become effective product launches e.g. Elon Musk Today.
Shift emphasis in design strategy to “Consequence Thinking”, instead of its fixation on the frictionless, the invisible and the gamified.
Without more disruption, tech leviathans can put the brakes on innovation according to their designs. The big question is whether Jony Ive can still be a revolutionary that we need, at a time when short-termism is the game.
When it comes to authentic progress, it looks played-out. Time to design something new, for all us humans. We just hope this is where Jony’s head is at too.
▶️ Watch the full episode here: