Question 1

What is the AXD Vocabulary?

Accepted Answer

The AXD Vocabulary is a canonical collection of 64 terms that define the discipline of Agentic Experience Design. It brings together the terms that define how the agentic economy is understood, discussed, and designed \u2014 helping teams move from vague excitement to precise thinking. Each term is native to AXD, not borrowed from UX or AI engineering.

Question 2

Why does AXD need its own vocabulary?

Accepted Answer

The vocabulary of a field is not decoration \u2014 it is infrastructure. Existing design and technology terminology does not adequately describe the unique challenges of designing for autonomous AI agents. Terms like trust architecture, delegation scope, absent-state design, and outcome specification describe phenomena that have no equivalent in traditional UX or software engineering vocabulary.

Question 3

What are the most important agentic AI terms?

Accepted Answer

The five foundational terms are: Agentic Experience Design (AXD), trust architecture, delegation design, machine customer, and outcome specification. Beyond these, key terms include absent-state design, operational envelope, intent engineering, trust calibration, and the consent horizon. Together they form the intellectual architecture of the discipline.

Question 4

How should teams use this vocabulary in practice?

Accepted Answer

Teams should use the vocabulary as shared infrastructure for decision-making. When discussing agentic AI products, use the precise AXD terms rather than vague approximations. The vocabulary enables teams to name problems precisely, communicate across disciplines, and build design specifications that address the real challenges of human-agent interaction.

Question 5

What are zero-click commerce, agent legibility, and B2B agentic commerce?

Accepted Answer

These are three of the newest additions to the AXD Vocabulary. Zero-click commerce describes the commercial condition in which an AI agent completes an entire purchase cycle without the human ever visiting a product page. Agent legibility is the four-dimension design property (state, capability, constraint, and reasoning legibility) that makes an autonomous system comprehensible to humans \u2014 the prerequisite for trust calibration. B2B agentic commerce is the domain in which AI agents represe

Question 6

What is delegation design in agentic AI?

Accepted Answer

Delegation design is the structured practice of defining how humans grant, constrain, and revoke authority in autonomous AI systems. It addresses three core questions: what authority is being delegated (scope), under what conditions (constraints), and how the human reclaims control (revocation). Delegation design is one of the five foundational concepts of AXD and is operationalised through the Delegation Design Framework in the AXD Practice.

Question 7

What is absent-state design and why does it matter for agentic AI?

Accepted Answer

Absent-state design is the AXD principle that the most consequential agentic experiences happen when the human is not present. Unlike traditional UX where the user is always at the screen, agentic AI operates autonomously while the human is absent. Absent-state design addresses what happens during this absence: how the agent makes decisions, how it handles exceptions, and how it reports back. The Absent-State Audit Framework provides the methodology for evaluating and improving absent-state beha

Question 8

What is outcome specification in agentic experience design?

Accepted Answer

Outcome specification is the AXD practice of defining what results an agent should achieve rather than what steps it should follow. It replaces the traditional UX concept of task flows with a constraint-based approach: the human specifies the desired outcome, the boundaries the agent must respect, and the conditions that require human re-engagement. Outcome specification is the bridge between human intent and agent action, and is operationalised through the Intent Architecture Framework.

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 Vocabulary of Agentic Experience Design

What is Agentic Experience Design?

How does AXD differ from traditional UX?

Why is trust architecture important for agentic AI?

Key concepts in AXD Vocabulary | 64 Key Terms for Agentic Experience Design

How do axd vocabulary relate to agentic commerce?

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the AXD Vocabulary?

Why does AXD need its own vocabulary?

What are the most important agentic AI terms?

How should teams use this vocabulary in practice?

What are zero-click commerce, agent legibility, and B2B agentic commerce?

Key Takeaways

References and Citations