Are We Losing Our Professional Identities in the Age of AI? | The Recursive Roundtable

In this episode of The Recursive Roundtable, three practitioners unpack where AI truly adds value — and where it doesn’t. They focus on practical implementation, human judgment, and the guardrails needed to keep quality high.

We examine how to start with AI the right way (individual productivity tools vs. team-wide process changes vs. building ML products, and why not every problem is a fit), how to protect human intent and quality in content and decision-making (avoiding generative sameness, using clear context and strong first drafts), and what AI can and can’t do in product design/UX.

GUESTS

Zamina Ahmad, AI & ML Product Leader, CEO @ shades&contrast

Ioana Teleanu, Founder & Design Consultant, ex-Miro & UiPath @ AI-R Design Studio, ex-Miro

Andrew Mende, Senior Product Manager Machine Learning @ Booking.com

CHAPTERS

00:00 Meet the Guests!

03:07 AI's Role in Content Creation

04:27 Navigating Role Changes with AI

08:28 AI Implementation for Companies

10:50 Is AI a Good Fit for Every Problem?

11:34 The Hybrid Approach to Content Generation

14:28 Addressing AI Slop

17:16 AI-Generated Designs in the Industry

20:55 Utilizing AI Assistants

24:56 Thoughts on AGI

30:07 The Critical Need for AI Literacy and Education in Companies

32:45 Navigating AI: Regulations, Critical Thinking, and Human Uniqueness

35:29 The Power of Intuition and Metacognition in the Age of AI