Designing for actual humans, not who we wish to be

Most products and policies are designed for the person we wish people were, rational, consistent, and good at following through. In reality, there exists a gap between what people say they'll do and what they actually do, and this is where most well-intentioned design falls apart.

This talk is about how AI is changing the research phase of behavioral design. How to use AI as a tool for getting faster, sharper, and deeper answers to the question why people actually behave the way they do and how we can design appropriately.

Drawing on Nudgelab's framework and client cases, we walk through how AI can accelerate the process from data to behavioral insight, helping you identify psychological barriers, relevant biases, and generate testable hypotheses before a building prototypes. The result is interventions and products grounded in how people actually behave.

You'll leave with a practical understanding of where AI fits into the behavioral research process, and concrete starting points for applying it in your own work, whether you're designing products, policies, or anything in between.