The AXD Manifesto
A founding declaration of Agentic Experience Design. What AXD is, what it requires, and what it must not become. The definitive statement on agentic design principles.
Enter
A New Design Discipline · Est. September 2024 · United Kingdom
Agentic Experience Design
The design of trust-governed human agent interaction between humans and agentic AI systems. A new discipline for the age of agentic commerce and agentic shopping.
Defining the Discipline
What is Agentic Experience Design?
Agentic Experience Design (AXD) is the design discipline concerned with how humans delegate, calibrate, observe, interrupt, and recover trust in autonomous systems. It operates at the boundary between human intention and machine action - a boundary that UX has never been required to design because, until now, machines did not act without being told to.
AXD is not UX for AI. It is not conversational UX, not prompt engineering, and not AI ethics. It is a parallel discipline that addresses the design challenges created by agentic AI - systems that anticipate, orchestrate, and operate in the world while the human is absent. From machine customers that transact on your behalf to autonomous agents that manage complex workflows, AXD provides the design frameworks for this new reality.
Founded in September 2024 by Tony Wood in the United Kingdom, the AXD Institute is the canonical institutional home of this emerging discipline - publishing the manifesto, vocabulary, and practice frameworks that define agentic design as a field.
The Founding Claim
For thirty years, designers shaped the screen. We built the flows, mapped the journeys, crafted the affordances through which human intention flowed into digital action. We became very good at designing for systems that wait. We are now designing for systems that act.
- From the AXD Manifesto, Tony Wood, September 2024
Four Doors
One discipline, four ways in
Whether you lead an organisation, design products, research agentic AI, or build teams - there is a door for you into the world of agentic experience design.
Five Principles
The founding principles of agentic design
I
Agency Requires Intentional Delegation
Every agentic AI system begins with an act of delegation - a human granting permission for autonomous action. AXD designers architect this delegation: its scope, duration, and mechanisms for revocation.
II
Trust is the Primary Material
Where UX works in attention and affordance, agentic design works in trust. Trust in autonomous agents is calibrated, contextual, and fragile - and it can be designed.
III
Absence is the Primary Use State
The most consequential agentic AI experiences happen when no one is watching. Machine customers transact, agents decide, systems operate - all while the human is absent.
IV
Relationships Have Temporality
Agentic experiences are not transactions - they are relationships that accumulate history and demonstrate character. The hundredth interaction matters more than the first.
V
Outcomes Replace Outputs
When the path is chosen by the agent, the designer specifies the destination, not the journey. Outcome specification is the primary design artifact of AXD.
The Observatory
Latest essay on agentic AI
Issue 001 · September 2024 · 12 min read
Beyond the Interface
Why the Age of UX is Ending and What Must Come Next. A founding essay on the most significant transition in human-computer interaction since the graphical user interface - from screen-based design to the design of agentic AI relationships.
Read essayQuestions & Answers
Understanding agentic design
Key questions about Agentic Experience Design, agentic commerce, agentic AI, agentic shopping, trust architecture, delegation design, and human agent interaction.
The Founder
Tony Wood
Emerging Technologies and Innovation Consultant and Agentic AI Product Specialist at Lloyds Banking Group. Founder of the Agentic Experience Design Institute. A leading voice in agentic commerce, agentic AI, agentic shopping, and human agent interaction design in the UK.
Tony Wood AI thought leadership spans decades at the intersection of design, technology, and financial services. The AXD Institute represents his founding claim that the design of human-agent relationships requires a new discipline - one built on trust architecture, delegation design, and outcome specification. His work on agentic experience design and agentic commerce is shaping how organisations approach agentic shopping, human agent interaction, and the design of autonomous agents.
Manchester · United Kingdom