Design Thinking is an Antidote for AI Job Threat! Explained with Example! Proposal to Shri Ashwini Vaishnaw ji, Union Minster for Railways for Upper berth Climbing Issue by 11th Grade Student

Dear Friends

Last week I spoke at AI Conclave and stressed the importance of Design Thinking as an antidote for AI-driven job threats. Somebody from the audience asked what is Design Thinking in simple terms. Here is the explanation.

It is Human Centred Approach to an Experiential Innovation. The follow-up question is “What is Experiential Innovation? The answer is, “Product or service should be affordable, someone should desire that product or service and it should be Technically feasible”. These 3 parameters + Human Centred Approach together is called Design Thinking.

Let me share an example.

For e.g., the Upper berth and the Middle berth are considered innovations with respective resting space in the air, overall space management, and weight management in the Indian Railway’s berths.

However, there is a flaw from the Design Thinking perspective. As all know, Senior citizens, women with infants, and passengers with knee problems are failing to climb or not preferring them. Finally, it is always the mercy of the lower berth passengers to offer a berth. Hence human centeredness is missing in this product/service.

I asked my son Siddharth who is studying in 11^th grade to attempt this from a Design Thinking perspective. He gave me the following model (self-managed pulley, expandable/foldable bars beneath of rest, rest bar to crawl from lift to the berth- explained in the below picture). Of course, I am sure it must be having some technical issues but by and large, he provided some solution to manage the weight lift without climbing. This is called the Design Thinking approach.

I am forwarding this to Hon’ble Union Minster for Railways for further research to implement in futuristic coaches.

I asked the same question to Chatgpt. It gave me multiple options like Using the ladder, Using the footrest, asking for assistance, using a step stool, Choose lower berth seats. That is why I am saying Design Thinking is the antidote to the AI Jobs threat. Design Thinkers can control AI and get better solutions.

Design thinking gives huge hope for future jobs through AI replacing many. I will be back with more examples in my coming next articles.

Get Design Thinking Ready!

Ravi Saripalle