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 |
The Delegation Design framework is a core AXD methodology for structuring how humans transfer authority to autonomous AI agents. It defines the complete delegation relationship: what the agent may do, what it must not do, when authority expires, and how scope can be renegotiated over time.
Delegation design comprises: scope definition (the boundaries of agent authority), constraint specification (hard limits and soft preferences), temporal bounds (when authority starts and expires), escalation triggers (conditions requiring human involvement), and success criteria (how outcomes are evaluated). Together these form the delegation contract.
Authority creep occurs when agents gradually expand their scope beyond what was delegated. The Delegation Design framework prevents this through explicit scope boundaries, automated scope monitoring, and mandatory re-authorisation for any action outside the defined scope. It treats delegation as a designed contract, not an open-ended permission.
Framework 02 of 12 · Delegation Phase · Authority architecture The grammar of giving authority to autonomous agents Commerce Application: Spending authority and scope Domains: Financial Services · Healthcare · Legal A structured approach to designing how humans grant, modify, and revoke authority in agentic systems. Covers scope definition, consent architecture, and revocation mechanisms. The grammar of giving authority - from standing orders to one-time mandates. Delegation Design Framework: Core Principles Delegation is not a permission slip. It is a contract between a human who wants something done and an agent that will do it. The quality of that contract determines whether the outcome is what the human intended or merely what the agent interpreted. Delegation Design Framework: Implementation Patterns Delegation Design Framework: Commerce Applications The most dangerous delegation is the one that feels complete but is not. When a human says 'handle my finances,' they mean something specific. Delegation Design ensures that specificity is captured, encoded, and enforced. Delegation Design Framework: Guidance for Teams Delegation Design Framework: Lifecycle Connections Delegation Design Framework: What Comes Next Delegation Design defines the boundaries. The next framework - Delegation Design Framework: The Framework Ecosystem Navigate the complete lifecycle of Agentic Experience Design. Each framework addresses a distinct phase of the human-agent relationship. Multi-Agent Orchestration Visibility Model Agent Memory & Context Continuity Framework Explainability & Observability Design Standard Onboarding & Capability Discovery Framework Ethical Constraint & Value Alignment Architecture