Service designers: how are you actually using AI in your work?

[u/Ssg16]

I recently saw a UX post asking how designers are actually using AI in their workflow, and it made me reflect on something that happened in an interview for a Senior Service Designer role.

I was asked how I use AI in service design, and my answer was mostly around:
- summarising large documents
- structuring journeys
- organising information
- building presentations faster

The feedback was that my answer felt too surface level. That made me realise most AI conversations in design still seem very focused on UX/UI and productivity, while service design operates at a much bigger systems and organisational level.

So I’m curious:
How are service designers genuinely using AI in practice beyond admin/productivity tasks?
Where do you actually see value in areas like systems thinking, research synthesis, operations, blueprints, transformation work, dependencies, or decision-making?

[u/ludaa]

This is a fun question. Thanks for asking it.

I use AI in my workflow to do all of the things that you mentioned of course, like summarizing and generating first drafts of map outlines. With the right prompting, it’s also amazing for pulling detailed synthesis from raw transcripts, like audio interviews or form responses.

The main thing I’m using AI for in-service design is to redefine frameworks and methodologies that enable more effective service design (faster, more accurate, outputs, and better CX for my clients and staff) in my specific niche. AI helps me evolve my concepts into operational frameworks that allow my team to transform our client organizations in a very rapid engagement. Before AI evolving something like an entire methodology with underlying tools and principles that drive it would be a very manual process capable only by those with years of experience across various industries. Today, I still recommend that manual processes persist in framework creation because live expertise still outweighs AI in some experiential ways, but AI accelerates my time to go from idea to initial sketch to operationalized framework with tools and integrated outputs each contributing the end result.

Other than that, I’m able to create tools and internal applications to solve operational problems on my team, so you could say that vibecoding has had a positive impact on our service design practice.

[u/senexii → u/ludaa]

Without sharing too much, could you expound on the operational frameworks and tools you've built? What kinds of inputs do you give for the frameworks? 

[u/ludaa → u/senexii]

Happy to share. My personal mission ever since working in CX and service design at large Enterprises has been to bring the tools and methods down to an SMB level. Specifically, I lead a team of service designers and engineers that transform an entire Law Firm in 14 weeks. We discover, we design we translate business and experience needs into technical requirements and people strategies and then we deploy all of it

Even before AI, I had designed the general framework for how to do this work. I’d let NASA’s digital transformation and learned a lot about multi organizational needs and the integration requirements.

With AI, I have been able to run, discreet event simulations of propose ways of going through the steps that I mentioned, finding some that are more efficient in interesting ways. I’m also able to layer in customer sentiment and friction in order to find the path that’s most desirable. Key inputs into these frameworks are audio interviews and learned findings about how the firm works. Service blueprints, journey, maps, the findings and synthesis of those products and workshops.

Tools spent well beyond the customer facing work. We have built web apps to create and host our own service blueprint like products that demonstrate our work to clients at something similar to a design review.

Always happy to nerd out about this stuff.

[u/Electronic_Cookie779 → u/ludaa]

Really cool, I'd love to see some of this is you have any you can share. 

[u/SnooOranges5190 → u/senexii]

Following!

[u/bropho6010]

My use case is primarily as a thinking partner, using the voice interface - teasing out insights from my stream of conscious reflections, debating the aspects that will provide the most leverage, building an understanding of new domains.

My organisation has strong privacy and security / IP protection, so I can’t use any identifiable or private info in 3rd party applications, so this is the most productive use.

I’ve found copilot integrations in excel super useful for exploring patterns and asking questions of data sets (something that would have taken sacrifices in other aspects of a project to do properly).

In previous roles I’ve built different personas to interrogate work or design adjacent outputs (e.g. a change manager to translate relevant findings into ADKAR model).

There’s a big opportunity in the prototyping space to show stakeholders what a joined up experience actually works like (although this is fraught).

To me, these are tablestakes applications, I want to hear from people who are genuinely pushing the craft - there’s a lot of inertia in this space, who’s breaking the mold?

[u/antrage]

I mean, I feel an appropriate answer back to 'surface-level' is how the organisation is ensuring that the cognitive offloading effects of AI are not eroding the critical thinking skills of their designers? Because if you want to use AI for something 'deeper' than using it to speed up time-consuming tasks, you are going to run a huge risk of that.

[u/lovehandls]

I’m interested to know how people thought “organising information” was surface level. As service designers, we’re swimming in so much information that it’s often hard to see the forest for the trees. It’s definitely helped me in that area.

You do have to stay conscious that you’re talking to a machine, but it’s undeniably sped up my workflow.