AI, Human Judgment, and High-Stakes Design with Joy KendiMwiti

About this episode

Lou Rosenfeld interviews Joy Kendi about the challenges of integrating AI into high-stakes design systems, emphasizing the importance of human judgment and community trust.

As AI becomes easier and cheaper to deploy, designers face a new challenge: deciding not just what can be automated, but what should be. Lou Rosenfeld talks with Joy Kendi of Dalberg Design — and an upcoming speaker at the Designing with AI 2026 conference — about introducing AI into high-stakes systems where design decisions can directly affect access to healthcare, services, and critical resources. Joy shares examples from her work in public health systems, including an AI concept intended to help community health workers prioritize patient visits. What initially seemed like an obvious efficiency gain quickly raised deeper concerns around incomplete data, shifting real-world conditions, and the irreplaceable role of human judgment and community trust. Rather than treating AI as a decision-maker, Joy argues for designing systems where AI supports — but does not override — human expertise. Their conversation also explores how AI is reshaping the role of designers themselves. Joy makes the case that designers must move “upstream” in the process, helping define boundaries, risks, trust, and governance before automation decisions are made. What You'll Learn from this Episode: How…

People in this episode

Host: Lou Rosenfeld

Guest: Joy Kendi

Topics covered

• AI in design
• human judgment
• high-stakes systems
• public health
• automation
• community trust

Keywords

• AI
• design
• human judgment
• public health
• automation
• community trust
• high-stakes systems
• data risks

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Dalberg Design, public health systems

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