111 - How AI is Revolutionizing Design Systems and Customer Experiences with Dave Calleja

Design Systems Podcast

Chris Strahl welcomes Dave Calleja back to the podcast to discuss the changing nature of design systems, integrating AI into the human creative process, and how to use behavior data for real-time design adaptations. Dave shares his views on the importance of design systems to customer experiences and how modern tools help scale personalized experiences that align with brand vision. Tune in to discover how the future of design systems is being shaped by AI, automation, and personalized content.

View the transcript of this episode.

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Guest
Dave leads the design practice at Merkle and dentsu in Australia-New Zealand as well as their Design Systems offering globally. He is deeply passionate about the role design plays creating in exceptional, memorable and transformative customer experiences. Right now, he’s focused on helping teams deliver a clear experience vision to every moment in the customer journey. You can connect with Dave on LinkedIn.

Host
Chris Strahl is co-founder and CEO of Knapsack, host of @TheDSPod, DnD DM, and occasional river guide. You can find Chris on Twitter as @chrisstrahl and on LinkedIn.

Sponsor
Sponsored by Knapsack, the design system platform that brings teams together. Learn more at knapsack.cloud.

Transcript
Chris Strahl [00:00:00]:

Hi, and welcome to the Design Systems podcast. This podcast is about the place where design and development overlap. We talk with experts to get their point of view about trends in design code and how it relates to the world around us. As always, this podcast is brought to you by Knapsack. Check us out at knapsack.cloud. If you want to get in touch with the show, ask some questions, or generally tell us what you think, go ahead and tweet us at thedspod. We'd love to hear from you. Hey, everyone.

Chris Strahl [00:00:22]:

Welcome to the design Systems podcast. I'm your host, Chris Strahl. Today I'm here with a repeat guest, Dave Calleja. Dave, it's so great to have you back. I know you're in the midst of a little bit of career reorganization, so why don't you talk about what you're doing these days?

Dave Calleja [00:00:36]:

Thanks, Chris. Really excited to be here again and really looking forward to the conversation. So my role has changed a bit since we last spoke. I'm responsible for experience design across Dentsu and Merkel in AnZ, and I'm also really excited to be leading our global design systems capability across Merkel.

Chris Strahl [00:00:53]:

Well, hey, it's great to have you back. It's been a long time coming. You were actually reminding me before the show that we used to record these asynchronously, like, with a ton of different software and everything like that. And, like, it's actually a different world of podcasting now that you've returned, so eager to have you back on, get kind of an update. And also, you know, one of the things that sparked this conversation was a post about the use of AI in design systems, and so I'm stoked to talk about it.

Dave Calleja [00:01:18]:

Yeah, likewise. You know, the world is changing so much faster since we last spoke. Like, we've been in contact on a number of different fronts, but since we last spoke, and what good looks like in the world of design systems and what p

Chapters

1. Growing importance of design systems in organizations (00:00:00)

2. Components crucial, but value and purpose paramount. (00:04:55)

3. Design systems must focus on delivering value. (00:06:34)

4. Startups compete to make AI-generated websites. (00:13:24)

5. Design system structure automates development process. (00:16:07)

6. Embrace structured documentation for more meaningful AI. (00:17:49)

7. Customizable design system integrates user inputs seamlessly. (00:22:23)

8. Enhanced risk perspective, monitoring, and control capabilities. (00:26:30)

9. Content access, unique brand value, and design. (00:30:43)

10. Need investment in collaboration and automation opportunities. (00:35:01)

11. Design system as central hub for integration. (00:37:34)

12. AI solves scale problem, exciting engineering challenge. (00:39:25)