Design Thinking and AI

About this course

This course is offered in partnership with the Echos School and the University of Tasmania.

Design Thinking & AI is a short course to help professionals understand and apply artificial intelligence in the context of design thinking. You’ll explore how to frame human-centred problems, generate creative solutions, and develop AI-powered prototypes to solve real-world challenges. Guided by the Echos team of experts, you’ll walk away with a practical toolkit and an enhanced understanding of how AI can support the development of solutions, new ideas and opportunities using design thinking methodologies.

Morning session: Exploring AI as a Creative Partner

• Foundations and Applications: Introduction to the roles of AI in Design Thinking and its application in creative process
• Research and Discovery: Using digital tools for data collection, gaining insights, and developing empathetic research guides
• Sensemaking and Analysis: Organising emerging patterns, creating synthetic personas, and formulating “How Might We?” questions with AI support

Afternoon session: Creative Solutions and Experimenting

• Ideation and Repertoire Building: Expand creative solutions with AI-guided brainstorming and exploration of analogies
• Prototyping and Testing: Develop prototypes using visual tools (DALL-E, Figma, Canva) and conduct simulated tests with synthetic personas to validate ideas
• Solution Fair: Present results and exchange feedback between groups
• Reflection and Insights: Identify key learnings and receive a consolidated summary

What you will learn

• Understand design thinking and the potential to apply AI to this process
• Conduct design research and empathise with users
• Frame meaningful challenges leveraging AI as a tool
• Develop and test innovative ideas using rapid prototyping
• Pitch solutions using storytelling and structured methods