Design Thinking & The AI Reality Check
- Date
- 2026-06-23
- Location
- Please use the entrance on Kapucínska Street — specifically the left door that leads to the Music and Art Literature Department. Just let the staff at the library counter know you’re here for the Projector event. We’ll be meeting on the 1st floor!, Bratislava, Bratislavský kraj, Slovakia
- Host
- Personal
About this event
AI is moving fast, but speed alone does not guarantee good decisions, useful products, or better outcomes for people. Design Thinking & The AI Reality Check is an in-person meetup for people who want to look past the hype and talk honestly about what happens when human-centered methods meet real-world AI tools, constraints, and expectations. This is a space for grounded conversation: practical, curious, and open to different levels of experience. If you care about how we design with AI, around AI, or in response to AI, you’ll find people here who are asking the same tough questions. About the Event At its core, this meetup explores the tension between two powerful forces: the optimism of design thinking and the messy reality of AI adoption. Design thinking asks us to start with people, test assumptions, and learn through iteration. AI often arrives with pressure to automate quickly, scale fast, and prove value immediately. This event sits right in that gap. Rather than treating AI as a magic solution or design thinking as a fixed playbook, the conversation will focus on what actually holds up in practice. What still works? What needs to change? Where do human insight, autonomy, and community fit when systems become more predictive, generative, and complex? Expect a meetup format that blends ideas and interaction. This is not just about listening passively. It is about comparing perspectives, challenging simplistic narratives, and making room for the kind of discussion that is easiest to have in person. What to Expect The event is designed to feel focused without being rigid. You can expect a clear theme, room for discussion, and opportunities to connect with others working through similar questions in different roles and industries. Likely moments during the meetup include: A framing conversation around design thinking in the current AI landscape Discussion of real tensions such as speed vs. care, automation vs. autonomy, and novelty vs. usefulness Community exchange where attendees can share observations, examples, and concerns from their own work Informal networking before, during, or after the main discussion This should be especially useful if you are tired of vague AI talk and want sharper thinking. The focus is not on pretending there is one clean answer. It is on surfacing better questions, comparing approaches, and identifying what responsible, effective practice might look like now. Because the event is in person, there is also a strong community element. The best conversations often happen in the margins: when someone connects a point to their own team, product, research, or creative work, and another person sees the same challenge from a completely different angle. Why Attend If you work anywhere near product, design, strategy, research, innovation, or digital tools, AI is already reshaping expectations. Teams are being asked to move faster, automate more, and make sense of tools that are evolving before norms have fully formed. This meetup gives you a chance to step back and think clearly with other people doing the same. You should leave with more than general inspiration. You will likely gain a better language for discussing AI tradeoffs, stronger instincts about where design thinking still provides real value, and a more nuanced view of how autonomy and human judgment fit into AI-enabled systems. There is also value in simply being in the room. Meeting others face to face can sharpen your own thinking, reveal blind spots, and create the kind of professional connections that do not happen in algorithmic feeds. For a topic as overloaded as AI, thoughtful community is not a side benefit; it is part of the point. This event may be especially energizing if you have felt caught between excitement and skepticism. You do not need to choose one side. You can be interested in AI’s possibilities while still asking for rigor, ethics, usability, and relevance. Practical Details When: Tuesday, June 23 at 5:00 PM GMT+2 Where: In person in Bratislava, Slovakia Please use the entrance on Kapucínska Street, specifically the left door that leads to the Music and Art Literature Department. When you arrive, just let the staff at the library counter know you’re there for the Projector event. The meetup will take place on the 1st floor, so give yourself a few extra minutes to find the right entrance and get settled before the discussion begins. Since this is an in-person gathering, the setting is well suited for both structured conversation and more informal networking. If this topic is close to your work, your studies, or your curiosity, come ready to listen, question, and contribute. The strongest part of an event like this is the room itself: people bringing practical experience, honest uncertainty, and a willingness to think more carefully about what AI means in real life.
Who should attend
This meetup is for you if you want a more grounded, human conversation about AI than the usual headlines and hot takes. - You work in **design, UX, product, service design, or research** and want to understand how design thinking holds up when AI becomes part of the process or product. - You are part of a **startup, innovation team, or digital project** and need better ways to think about AI beyond pressure to ship something quickly. - You care about **autonomy, ethics, and human judgment** and want to discuss how those values can survive in increasingly automated systems. - You are a **strategist, builder, creative, founder, student, or operator** looking for smart, in-person conversation with people asking similar questions from different angles. - You enjoy **meetups where discussion matters**, not just one-way presentations, and you want to exchange ideas with a thoughtful local community. - You are curious about AI but also skeptical of oversimplified claims, and you want a place where that mix of interest and caution makes sense.