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As the world muddles its way through this period of profound uncertainty, design must assume yet another mandate. Well beyond surface aesthetics and smooth usability, good design today calls for empathy, adaptability, resilience, and accountability. This new paradigm asks more of designers and challenges them to imagine solutions to pressing challenges. Through my work with iF Design, I have the privilege of engaging with extraordinary changemakers and thought leaders around the world, and what I see is a powerful and evolving imperative: Design must be human-centered, environmentally responsive, and future-focused. The insights that follow offer examples of this new paradigm in action. I hope the expert perspectives spark a renewed sense of optimism about the future and deliver hope for designs power to drive meaningful change. A new era of design is here, and its up to companies and designers alike to embrace the opportunity. Empathy Great design solves human problems; but to solve these problems, we must first identify them. Sure, technology and creativity are crucial, but the first step is always empathy. This goes beyond simply asking what users want; it involves getting immersed in their experiences, listening to their stories, observing their behaviors, and uncovering unspoken pain points and aspirations. This insight can then inform design choices, ensuring that products, services, and spaces feel intuitive, supportive, and resonant for the community(ies) that use them. Richard Trigg is a longtime design leader, UX strategist, and design partner at Tangent in London. When I asked how he defines great design, Trigg responded that his approach is all about empathy. He added, Ive worked across every kind of design from brand communications to digital products, but the thread that ties it all together is empathydesigning experiences that help people complete their goals while supporting business objectives and increasingly, the planet too. Adaptability Today, the world moves at an even faster pace than just a few years ago, and design is no exception. In this rapidly shifting landscape where AI and other emerging technologies threaten domination, and cultural sensitivities shift with the tides, adaptability is essential. Weve seen once cutting-edge designs become obsolete almost overnight and award-winning creative cancelled without warning. These examples underscore just how quickly technology can reshape society, and how anything that fails to take the future into consideration risks being left behind. Adaptability isnt just a competitive advantage. Its the foundation of lasting impact. The most successful designs are responsive, and account for the inevitability of change. Moreover, great design historically and now again increasingly, is built to be repaired, reused, and updated versus discarded. Kenny Arnold, a circular designer at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, believes this will continue to be an important trend in design. However, companies should be able to clearly explain and provide evidence of how they incorporate circular design attributes into a product, (e.g. provide spare parts, easy repair, product as a service, etc.). By embracing flexibility and continuous evolution, we can create real solutions that remain relevant and create less waste. Resilience Among the areas of design most impacted by the climate crisis is our built environment. Increasingly, architects, urban planners, interior designers, and landscape architects have a growing urgency to respond and anticipate whats still coming. As Achim Nagel, architect and managing director of Primus Developments, a German real estate development company focused on creating sustainable and innovative residential and commercial buildings, says: I strongly believe that right now, we have a historical chance to develop completely new ideas and designs that help us form a safer and more resilient habitat for mankind. Perhaps not sophisticated and elegant in the ways we think of design today, but definitely NEW. Lisa SanFilippo, also an architect and now the senior design specialist in sustainability at market leader Turner Construction, describes the mandate as she sees it: Ultimately, resilient design is about anticipating disruption and responding in a way that protects people, supports recovery, and reduces long-term impact. Its not about overbuilding. Its about designing smarter, planning earlier, and making decisions that reflect both climate reality and human priorities. In both cases, were talking about a shift from short-term cost to long-term value, serving people and the planet in a risk-informed way. Accountability According to Harvard Business Review, while 65% of consumers say they want to buy purpose-driven or sustainable brands, only about 26% actually do.We spoke about this issue with Joe Brown, founder, publisher, and editorial director of one5c, an action-oriented sustainability and climate action publication. Companies, no matter who runs them, are ultimately beholden to the people who use their products. When consumers prioritize sustainability, it pushes companies to respond. But the products need to exist first. Rightfully, Joe calls this a chicken-and-egg issue where designers must create options consumers are eager to choose. Enter design. If consumers are ready to hold themselves accountable, its time for designers to do the same. In recent years, major brands have paid lip service to sustainable initiatives, recognizing environmental consciousness as a powerful value-add in todays market. Yet, as statistics show, many consumers are unwilling to sacrifice quality, functionality, aesthetic appeal, or affordability for the more sustainable alternative. The solution is clear: Designers must make sustainability a nonnegotiable in every design, while businesses must figure out how to make it profitable for shareholders and safe for workers. Exceptional design and responsibility can not only coexist, but must. Accountability from designers and their management will not only help the planet and consumers, but will future-proof leading companies. Final word A simple answer to the environmental crisis posed by harmful, short-lived products is the principle of fewer, better which was of course, the core philosophy of Bauhaus and other great design movements throughout time. This proposition calls for designs that are empathetic, adaptable, resilient and accountable to people and planet, our present and shared future. May the design and business worlds be inspired to rise to the challenge. Lisa Gralnek is global head of sustainability and impact for iF Design, managing director of iF Design USA Inc., and creator/host of the podcast, FUTURE OF XYZ.
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E-Commerce
In the first half of 2025, she racked up over 55 million views on TikTok and 4 million likes, mostly from tweens glued to their cellphones. Not bad for an AI-generated cartoon ballerina with a cappuccino teacup for a head. Her name is Ballerina Cappuccina. Her smiling, girlish face is accompanied by a deep, computer-generated male voice singing in Italianor, at least, some Italian. The rest is gibberish. She is one of the most prominent characters in the internet phenomenon known as Italian Brain Rot,” a series of memes that exploded in popularity this year, consisting of unrealistic AI-generated animal-object hybrids with absurdist, pseudo-Italian narration. The trend has baffled parents, to the delight of young people experiencing the thrill of a new, fleeting cultural signifier that is illegible to older generations. Experts and fans alike say the trend is worth paying attention to, and tells us something about the youngest generation of tweens. A nonsensical, AI-generated realm The first Italian brain-rot character was Tralalero Tralala, a shark with blue Nike sneakers on his elongated fins. Early Tralalero Tralala videos were scored with a curse-laden Italian song that sounds like a crude nursery rhyme. Other characters soon emerged: Bombardiro Crocodilo, a crocodile-headed military airplane; Liril Laril, an elephant with a cactus body and slippers; and Armadillo Crocodillo, an armadillo inside a coconut, to name a few. Content creators around the world have created entire storylines told through intentionally ridiculous songs. These videos have proven so popular that they have launched catchphrases that have entered mainstream culture for Generation Alpha, which describes anyone born between 2010 and 2025. Fabian Mosele, 26, calls themselves an Italian brain rot connoisseur. An Italian animator who lives in Germany and works with AI by trade, Mosele created their first Italian brain-rot content in March. Shortly after, Mosele’s video of Italian brain-rot characters at an underground rave garnered about a million views overnight, they said. It has since topped 70 million. Even as the hysteria over the absurdist subgenre has slowed, Mosele said the characters have transcended the digital realm and become an indelible part of pop culture. It feels so ephemeral,” Mosele said, but it also feels so real. This summer, one of the most popular games on Roblox, the free online platform that has approximately 111 million monthly users, was called “Steal a Brainrot.” The goal of the game, as the title would suggest, is to steal brain-rot characters from other players. More popular characters, like Tralalero Tralala, are worth more in-game money. Sometimes, the games’ administratorswho are also playerscheat to steal the characters, a move called “admin abuse” that sent many kids and teens into a frenzy. One video of a young child hysterically crying over a stolen character has 46.8 million views on TikTok. It’s not supposed to make sense In the non-virtual world, some have made physical toy replicas of the characters, while others have created real-life plays featuring them. The nonsensical songs have at times gestured to real-world issues: One clip of Bombardiro Crocodilo sparked outrage for seemingly mocking the war in Gaza. But ultimately, the majority of videos are silly and absurd. Mosele said Italian brain-rot consumers largely dont care about how the images relate to what is being said or sung. They often dont even care to translate the nonsensical Italian to English. Its funny because its nonsense, Mosele said. Seeing something so dark, in a way, and out of the ordinary, that breaks all the norms of what we would expect to see on TVthats just super appealing. The rise of brain rot Italian brain rot didnt go viral in a vacuum. Brain rot, the 2024 Oxford University Press word of the year, is defined as the numbing of an intellectual state resulting from the “overconsumption of trivial or unchallenging material. It can also be used to describe the brain-rotting content itself. Lots of content falls into that category. Consider videos of the game Subway Surfers split-screened next to full episodes of television shows, or Skibidi Toilet, an animated series featuring toilets with human heads popping out of their bowls. Those not chronically online might instinctively recoil at the term “brain rot,” with its vaguely gory connotations, especially as concern about the potential harms of social media for adolescents mounts. When “brain rot” was crowned word of the year, Oxford Languages President Casper Grathwohl said the term speaks to one of the perceived dangers of virtual life, and how we are using our free time. Emilie Owens, 33, a children’s media researcher, agreed that endless scrolling poses dangers for young people. But she said that the concern about brain rot is misguided. It’s normal to view the thing the newest generation is doing with fear and suspicion,” she said, pointing to how past generations have had similar concerns about the detrimental effects of comic books, television, and even novels at one time. Concerns about brain rotthat it is unproductive and pointlessactually reveal a great deal about their appeal, Owens said. Brain rot is an acute rejection of the intense pressures on young people to self-optimize. Its very normal for everyone to need to switch their brains off now and again, she said. By Safiyah Riddle, Associated Press/Report For America Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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E-Commerce
When you hear governance, what pops to mind? We often picture limitations or roadblocks. Yet the opposite is true, particularly with artificial intelligence. AI governance is about discovering what your organization can do. Organizations implementing comprehensive AI governance experience measurable returns, including $840,000 in operational efficiency gains and 80% in productivity improvements. Building out your AI roadmap requires a mindset shift. These ideas will move you from limitation to acceleration. CLARIFY YOUR BUSINESS CONCERNS Implementing AI governance helps you learn what your business needs. Every business has constraints, like legal obligations, privacy rules, and internal risk tolerances. Every company also has ambitionsefficiency, acceleration, or gaining a competitive advantage. Governance lets you express your boundaries and goals within a scalable system. Dont think of it as a checklist. Think of it as a steering wheel. Before rushing to deploy the latest model, answer this: What AI technology is mature enough to be useful for us right now, and which parts of the business are ready for it? That framing alone changes the game. Governance becomes less about saying no and more about learning whats viable. Many organizations have swiftly adopted internal-facing AI tooling, with uses for documentation, meeting summaries, and extracting key insights from reports. The risk is lower, the value is immediate, and accountability is clear. Governance plays a different role in higher-risk domains. iCAD, a healthcare technology company using AI to help identify breast cancer, is developing end-user services. Their models score lesions and cases based on diverse global data sets. This isnt casual experimentation; it’s AI applied with domain specificity, regulatory oversight, and extremely high reliability standards. In both cases, governance didnt slow things down. It helped define where AI could make an immediate impact. ACCEPT THAT THERES NOT ONE MAGIC FRAMEWORK In the early days of the internet, downloading a single JPEG took 30 minutes. Building a basic website lasted weeks. There wasnt one standard for everything. We iterated as we went and accepted that because we knew what the web could unlock. Were in a similar moment with AI governance. Right now, theres no magic bullet. No single framework works for every company, every team, or every use case. We must understand the different dimensions of needs. A tool managing data provenance isnt the same as one that ensures secure software runtimes. AI governance is about intentionality. Resist the temptation to have organization-wide, looming mandates for AI usage. That suppresses the ability of individual business functions to discover whats right for them. Sometimes, the best solution might be an outsourced, third-party AI service; that idea may be unfeasible in other scenarios. Governance at this stage is about enabling safe, domain-specific exploration. COMMUNICATE AND OFFER TRANSPARENCY In our report, Bridging the AI Model Governance Gap, we asked respondents what would most help improve model governance. Their top three: better-integrated tools, better visibility into model components, and team training. The common thread between those priorities is transparency. About three in four companies have a fragmented toolchain, a set of tools to build or develop software. Thats okayif you understand why youre doing it. Large governance failures come from misaligned teams, not bad tools. This misalignment can play out poorly in the real world. Air Canada had a chatbot deliver false discount information to a passenger, then refused to honor what the chatbot said. The airline claimed the chatbot was a separate legal entity that is responsible for its own actions. The courts disagreed, and the public trust fallout was worse than the legal ruling. The governance around this AI lacked a shared understanding of accountability, review, and team communication. Grow that trust by bringing together the legal team, compliance, and data steward, letting them ride alongside the builders. Bring together the most open-minded people from each group to co-create and develop governance in tandem, rather than adding it afterward. MOVE QUICKLY AND SUPPORT YOUR TEAM The AI landscape is constantly evolving through regulatory landscapes, compliance requirements, and licensing uncertainties. A team somewhere stood up a new data pipeline while you read that last sentence. In this environment, governance helps your teams to operate quickly without crashing through new habits, new tools, and a new level of discipline. If your teams deploy projects with significant AI coding, expect to write more monitoring, tests, and validation suites. Does it work? is no longer the question. Instead, ask, Can we explain why it works, and what happens if it doesnt? Theres a reason F1 race car drivers spend time strengthening their neck muscles. When that 5G turn hits, they dont get whipsawed. Its all in the preparation. Part of any teams time should be allocated to professional development. They can learn best practices, experiment, and figure out how to implement real guardrails at business and technology levels. Governance and experimentation cant be split like a budget. Embed both at the team level. Governance is an emerging discipline. The teams building that muscle now are laying the foundation for long-term advantage. Peter Wang is the cofounder and chief AI and innovation officer of Anaconda.
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E-Commerce
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