AXD for Strategists

What is AXD for Strategists | AXD Institute?

AXD for Strategists — an AXD Institute resource on agentic experience design, agentic commerce, trust architecture, and human agent interaction. Founded by Tony Wood..

How does AXD differ from traditional UX?

Why is trust architecture important for agentic AI?

Key concepts in AXD for Strategists | AXD Institute

How do strategists assess agentic commerce readiness relate to agentic commerce?

  1. Agency requires intentional delegation — every agentic system begins with a designed act of delegation
  2. Trust is the primary material — AXD works in trust rather than attention
  3. Absence is the primary use state — the most consequential experiences happen when no one is watching
  4. Relationships have temporality — agentic experiences accumulate history over time
  5. Outcomes replace outputs — AXD designers specify results, not interfaces
DimensionTraditional UXAgentic Experience Design (AXD)
Primary materialAttention and affordanceTrust and delegation
User statePresent, navigatingAbsent, delegating
Design outputScreens and interfacesOutcomes and constraints
Temporal modelSession-basedRelationship-based
Success metricTask completionTrust calibration

Frequently Asked Questions

How do strategists assess agentic commerce readiness?

Strategists assess agentic commerce readiness using the Four Pillars framework: Trust Architecture (are trust mechanisms designed?), Delegation Design (are authority structures explicit?), Observability (can agent behaviour be audited?), and Recovery Design (are failure responses planned?). The AXD Institute provides a formal assessment tool for each pillar.

What strategic frameworks apply to agentic experience design?

Key strategic frameworks for AXD include: the Autonomy Gradient (five levels of agent independence), the Trust Calibration Model (dynamic trust adjustment), the Delegation Canvas (structured authority design), and the Four Pillars Assessment (organisational readiness). These frameworks help strategists plan the transition to agent-mediated business models.

How will agentic commerce change competitive dynamics?

Agentic commerce will shift competition from human-facing brand experience to machine-readable value propositions. Strategists must prepare for: agents as decision-makers (not just tools), trust architecture as a competitive moat, machine-readable product data as a requirement, and agent reputation as a new form of brand equity.

Key Takeaways

Redefine your value proposition for agent evaluation -

References and Citations

Gartner: Machine Customers Will Be a Multibillion-Dollar Opportunity Harvard Business Review: The Age of AI Agents McKinsey: The State of AI in 2024 About the AXD Institute Contact Us Email the AXD Institute Tony Wood on LinkedIn Tony Wood on X (Twitter)