Post by Aahna Sharma

We are currently breaking the laws of physics in UX. I had the incredible honour of visiting Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee for COMET’26 to host my masterclass: ‘The Ghost in the Machine: Designing for Agentic UI.’ I started the session with a provocation: In traditional UX, we live by Newton’s Third Law — every user action has an equal and opposite reaction. You click, the screen changes. You type, the system responds. We design for feedback. But in the age of Agentic AI, we are moving towards a world where there is no user action, yet there must be a perfect reaction. During the masterclass, we deconstructed the shift from Deterministic UI to Probabilistic UI, challenged the students to design ‘Zero-Prompt’ interfaces and systems that understand the ‘Ghost’ and our context to deliver value without being asked. But the real magic happened after the masterclass. I spent some quality time at the Department of Design, sitting down with students to discuss their fears and their fire. We talked about AI anxiety, the changing job market and the massive responsibility we now hold as architects of intent. Seeing their raw curiosity reminded me why I do this. My message to them was simple: Design is no longer just about pixels or even User Journeys. We are becoming System Architects. Our job is to build the ‘receipt of trust’, the transparency that tells a user why an AI made a specific decision on their behalf. I am obsessed with this transition. Seeing the fire in these students' eyes as they mapped logic trees instead of wireframes was a powerful reminder that the future of design isn't just automated; it’s more human than ever. Thank you to the Department Of Design, IIT Roorkee and the Career Development Cell, IIT Roorkee team, for an unforgettable experience. Bhushan Khodankar Pranjal Singh Manish Kumar Asthana Madhan Kumar VASUDEVAN The era of the 'Ghost in the System' is here, and I’m excited to see how this generation defines it. #UXDesign #AgenticAI #DesignLeadership #IITRoorkee #LollypopDesign #SystemThinking #FutureOfDesign #ProductStrategy #DesignMentorship #NBU #AI #AIUX #DesignManager #ProductDesign Lollypop Design Studio