John Maeda’s artwork is in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York City; the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; and the Cartier Foundation in Paris. He was a professor at the MIT Media Lab for 12 years. John Maeda’s 2026 Design in Tech report reveals what designers must learn as AI reshapes the field ie designing for trust.

John Maeda on Designing for AI in 2026

I have been reading the Design in Tech every year that John Maeda has been bringing out. It put design as a point of discussion in Board Rooms. In 2026 his report had these observations:

In 2026 as a designer looking forward into the future, I recommend you:

• Learn how to speak machine.
• Learn to understand feedback loops.
• Learn to judge quality.
• Learn to shape behavior.
• Learn to design for trust.

And to keep in mind:

Becoming the deciders for how good the machine’s work really is.

We are moving from designing screens to designing behaviors.

From drawing interfaces to shaping systems.

Career strategy for designers

I asked John Maeda what makes him nervous. He said: Success.

Every time he gets good at something – truly comfortable – he starts looking for the exit.

He quoted Ray Kroc to me: “When you’re green, you’re growing. When you’re ripe, you’re ready to rot.”

“When you’re green, you’re growing. When you’re ripe, you’re ready to rot.”

Ray Kroc

So every time John feels like a bright red tomato – fully formed, finally the expert in the room – he deliberately chooses green again.

This is a man with three honorary PhDs. CVP Engineering at Microsoft. The person who spent three years in the US Congress lobbying to add Art to STEM subjects. Fast Company’s “Master of Innovation.”

Mount Fuji career strategy for designers

And his career strategy is to keep making himself a beginner.

He left device physics for design. Design for business. Business for investing. Investing for code. More recently code for AI.

Not because things were going wrong. Because they were going too right.

A Japanese sculptor once told him there are two ways to build a career. One is a tall, narrow mountain – deep specialization, impressive height. But one crack and it falls over. The other is a broad hill. Looks unimpressive for years. But over decades, it becomes Mount Fuji.

I think about this a lot.

We live in a time where AI is changing the work, the worker, and the workplace – all three, simultaneously. The people who’ll navigate this aren’t necessarily the deepest specialists. They’re the ones who can improvise. And you can only improvise if you’ve played more than one instrument.

The real question isn’t “what should my next career move be?”

It’s “Am I a red tomato pretending I’m still green?”

Here is my conversation with John Maeda.