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Augmenting the human: Happy Artificial Intelligence Appreciation Day
16 July 2026Artificial Intelligence has transformed how we live, how we access information and, perhaps most noticeably, how work happens across every industry. Product design is no exception. In just a few short years, AI has become a powerful tool for accelerating research, sharpening early concepts and supporting smarter engineering decisions.
However, AI isn’t replacing industrial designers. It’s making them more efficient, more informed and giving them more time to focus on what humans do best: solving complex problems creatively.
At GX, we’ve always embraced technology that helps us deliver better products. AI is simply the latest evolution in a long line of design and engineering tools.
AI speeds up the process, people create the solutions
Effective design is not simply a matter of designing a successful product or producing a nice‑looking concept. It’s about understanding users, engineering constraints, manufacturing processes, commercial viability, regulations and real‑world performance. Those challenges demand critical thinking and collaboration.
AI helps by augmenting tasks that would otherwise consume valuable design time. Depending on the project, it can support:
- Market and competitor research
- Generating early concept directions
- Summarising technical documentation and standards
- Exploring design alternatives
- Assisting with software development and code generation
- Analysing large volumes of engineering information
- Producing documentation more efficiently
Rather than replacing designers, AI reduces the repetitive, granular work that can sometimes distract engineers and industrial designers from their time refining ideas, testing concepts and solving the difficult engineering challenges that ultimately determine whether a product succeeds.
AI is already inside many of the products we design
AI isn’t just a behind‑the‑scenes tool. Increasingly, the products themselves incorporate intelligent software to improve the user experience.
A great example is Procare 247AIR. Inbuilt Intelligent sensing and automated control systems help salons reduce waste while improving consistency and ease of use, transforming what was once a manual product into a smarter, more intuitive experience.
The same multidisciplinary approach runs through many GX projects:
- Modern Water Microtox CTM uses advanced analytical technology to continuously monitor water quality, processing complex data to detect contamination quickly. We used similar approaches to deliver the Modern Water Microtox LX and field-based Microtox FX systems.
- ScanTrainer uses innovative hardware to help healthcare professionals develop ultrasound scanning skills in a safe training environment.
- Speedwrap Pro integrates mechanical engineering to make food preparation faster, safer and more consistent in busy commercial kitchens.
Across our portfolio, intelligence comes from the seamless integration of electronics, embedded software, sensors and control systems. While not every product requires the presence of AI, many rely on smart technology to improve performance and create a better experience for the end user.
AI works best with multidisciplinary design
An advantage of working with GX is that our industrial designers, mechanical engineers, electronics specialists and software developers collaborate from day one. AI is no longer treated as a separate capability; it’s another tool that supports an integrated product development approach.
Whether we’re developing embedded software, creating control systems, designing electronics or engineering products for manufacture, our team combines human expertise with modern digital tools to augment commercially successful products. That multidisciplinary approach allows us to create products which don’t just work today, but are prepared for tomorrow.
The future isn’t AI or designers. It’s AI and designers.
Artificial Intelligence will continue to change how products are developed. It will automate more routine tasks, uncover insights more quickly and support increasingly complex engineering decisions.
That being said, successful product design has always been about understanding people, how a product feels in someone’s hand, how it will be manufactured, how cost, performance, reliability and usability balance together, and where opportunities exist that data alone can’t reveal.
These are human skills and it’s important that we don’t lose sight of that. AI augments the human, it should not replace it.
For that reason, at GX, we see AI as an incredibly valuable assistant. We do not see it as a designer. The best products will always come from combining intelligent technology with experienced people who know how to turn ideas into commercial reality.