Agentic Experience Design (AXD) is the discipline for designing trust-governed relationships between humans and autonomous AI systems. Founded in September 2024 by Tony Wood in Manchester, United Kingdom, AXD addresses how humans delegate, calibrate, observe, interrupt, and recover trust in agentic AI.
| Dimension | Traditional UX | Agentic Experience Design (AXD) |
|---|---|---|
| Primary material | Attention and affordance | Trust and delegation |
| User state | Present, navigating | Absent, delegating |
| Design output | Screens and interfaces | Outcomes and constraints |
| Temporal model | Session-based | Relationship-based |
| Success metric | Task completion | Trust calibration |
No. AXD is a parallel discipline, not a specialisation of UX. UX was built for systems that wait - optimising for attention in a state of user presence. AXD is built for systems that act - optimising for trust in a state of user absence. The unit of design, the primary material, and the assumed user state are all different.
You need AXD when you are building a system that acts on a user's behalf without their direct, real-time supervision. If the user delegates authority and steps away, AXD governs the design. If the user is present and interacting, UX governs the design. Most agentic systems need both.
AXD designs trust architecture, delegation structures, absent-state experiences, recovery mechanisms, and outcome specifications. UX designs interfaces, interactions, flows, and usability. AXD addresses the relationship between human and agent; UX addresses the interaction between human and interface.
Yes. They are complementary disciplines. Agentic systems need excellent UX for the delegation interface and performance reporting (when the user is present) and robust AXD for the autonomous operation (when the user is absent). The transition from presence to absence is a critical design surface.
AXD, in stark contrast, is designed for the This shift from presence to absence changes everything. UX optimizes for attention; AXD optimizes for trust. UX designs for interaction; AXD designs for delegation. One is about making the tool easy to use; the other is about making the tool trustworthy to use on its own. UX design is often focused on enabling users to generate specific AXD, however, is oriented around achieving broader It is a mistake to see AXD and UX as being in competition. They are complementary disciplines that address different phases of the human-computer relationship. Most sophisticated agentic systems will require both. You need excellent UX for the initial setup, the delegation process, and the review of the agent\'s performance. This is the \'present user\' phase where the human interacts directly with the agent\'s interface. Once the delegation is made and the user is absent, the principles of AXD take over, governing the agent\'s autonomous operation. A successful system is one where the UX of the delegation interface is so clear and the underlying AXD is so robust that the user feels completely comfortable turning their attention elsewhere. The ultimate goal is a seamless transition from a state of presence, managed by UX, to a state of absence, secured by AXD.