This presentation was a webinar for the Global Service Design Network's annual #serviceDesignDay celebration. I believe that artificial intelligence and service design can benefit from working together. This presentation highlights some of the areas I think we can have the most significant impact. To watch the recording go to https://youtu.be/BmLBo0eIN14.

1. #ServiceDesignDay
UNDERSTANDING
AI FOR SD

2. RICH EKELMAN
New Jersey Experience Design Founder
Service DesignerMFA Service DesignBA Psychology Service Designer
Service DesignerServed 4 years
Master Trainer
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3. 1-on-1 Coaching
A completely customized advice for
individuals used in blocks of time to discuss
hiring advice to individual capabilities.
Project Based Training Train the Trainer
Structured training based on a live project
for a specific area in an organization.
Start with a group to grow service design
internally without living on consultants.
Public Workshops
Skill based content designed to help
people build more SD capabilities.
SD Certificate Course
12 week deep dive into the core and
intermediate skills needed to practice SD.
SERVICES
3© SERV/ 2018. All rights reserved.
SERVICES

4. The co-creative nature of service design reduces
risk and find the simplest way to solve complex is-
sues.
2. Reduce Risk
Service design focuses on the value exchange. Fo-
cusing on what people value turns down the noise.
1. Simplicity & Clarity
Service design has a tremendous impact when we
are able to show and re-imagine how the layers of a
service.
3. Fix Broken Processes
Service design helps create broader metrics
through grouping inputs against independent met-
rics.
5. Triangulate
Service Design works to balance an organization’s
score card through better processes and diverse
KPIs.
4. Balanced Business
The tech agnostic nature of service design makes
the discipline incredibly flexible and free to adjust to
reality.
6. Innate Flexibility
• Service Design and Artificial Intelligence can be powerful allies I am
not suggesting they are the same.
• Service design and artificial intelligence are not simple disciplines but
can help organizations find simplicity.
• The future of service design is entrepreneurial. I believe AI is a critical
part of building smarter, more adaptable, service organizations.
• This talk is intended to spark discovery.
PREMISE

5. Foundation Opportunities Steps
A ridiculously quick and insulting
overview of Artificial Intelligence.
A few ways I think SD and AI can
help each other as they grow.
A few ways to begin your own
exploration into AI.
Photo by Marksu Spiske
© SERV/ 2018. All rights reserved.

6. The co-creative nature of service design reduces
risk and find the simplest way to solve complex is-
sues.
2. Reduce Risk
Service design focuses on the value exchange. Fo-
cusing on what people value turns down the noise.
1. Simplicity & Clarity
Service design has a tremendous impact when we
are able to show and re-imagine how the layers of a
service.
3. Fix Broken Processes
Service design helps create broader metrics
through grouping inputs against independent met-
rics.
5. Triangulate
Service Design works to balance an organization’s
score card through better processes and diverse
KPIs.
4. Balanced Business
The tech agnostic nature of service design makes
the discipline incredibly flexible and free to adjust to
reality.
6. Innate Flexibility
“We tend to overestimate the
effect of a technology in the
short run and underestimate
the effect in the long run.”
AMARA’S LAW

7. is a creative discipline solving
systematic problems through
the co-creation of value
across the digital and physical
moments of people’s lives.
Service Design
is a branch of computer science
that aims to create intelligent
machines mimicking the
capabilities of the human brain.
Artificial Intelligence
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8. 8
AI PIONEERS
• Alan Turin 1930s
Imitation Game
• Frank Rosenblat 1950s
Perceptron
• Geoffrey Hinton 1980s
Deep Learning Networks
*Technological advancements in the US
during the 1940s through 90s was mostly for
military technology.
© SERV/ 2018. All rights reserved.

9. AI
TERMS
Machine Learning
Algorithms whose performance improve as they are exposed to
more data over time. This is largely reliant on clean data.
Deep Learning
Subset of machine learning in which multi layered neural networks
learn from vast amount of data. Mimicking the neurological syn-
apses of human cognition.
© SERV/ 2018. All rights reserved.
Towards Data on Medium
Deep Learning
Machine Learning
Artificial Intelligence
9

10. The co-creative nature of service design reduces
risk and find the simplest way to solve complex is-
sues.
2. Reduce Risk
Service design focuses on the value exchange. Fo-
cusing on what people value turns down the noise.
1. Simplicity & Clarity
Service design has a tremendous impact when we
are able to show and re-imagine how the layers of a
service.
3. Fix Broken Processes
Service design helps create broader metrics
through grouping inputs against independent met-
rics.
5. Triangulate
Service Design works to balance an organization’s
score card through better processes and diverse
KPIs.
4. Balanced Business
The tech agnostic nature of service design makes
the discipline incredibly flexible and free to adjust to
reality.
6. Innate Flexibility
“It’s AI when you’re trying
to raise money, Machine
Learning when hiring
developers, and statistics
when you’re actually doing it.”
KRISTAN LUM / HRDAG

11. 11
Rules are known, and a
framework is defined.
* There are also two phases in AI known as training and inferencing.
Machines can learn and ask their
own question.
Variables are everywhere,
and there are infinite.
AGIOpen systemsClosed systems
CATEGORIES
© SERV/ 2018. All rights reserved.

12. AI INPUTS
ConversationsTelevisionsIoTVideoChatFace Recognition Twitter
ApplicationsAudioTransactionsImagesTextBiometrics Facebook

13. MIT Technology Review

14. The co-creative nature of service design reduces
risk and find the simplest way to solve complex is-
sues.
2. Reduce Risk
Service design focuses on the value exchange. Fo-
cusing on what people value turns down the noise.
1. Simplicity & Clarity
Service design has a tremendous impact when we
are able to show and re-imagine how the layers of a
service.
3. Fix Broken Processes
Service design helps create broader metrics
through grouping inputs against independent met-
rics.
5. Triangulate
Service Design works to balance an organization’s
score card through better processes and diverse
KPIs.
4. Balanced Business
The tech agnostic nature of service design makes
the discipline incredibly flexible and free to adjust to
reality.
6. Innate Flexibility
• Live at the intersection of technology and behavior
• Industry agnostic
• Span traditional silos and step on toes
• Small experiments over big leaps
• An infinite amount of room to grow
COMMON THREADS

15. The co-creative nature of service design reduces
risk and find the simplest way to solve complex is-
sues.
2. Reduce Risk
Service design focuses on the value exchange. Fo-
cusing on what people value turns down the noise.
1. Simplicity & Clarity
Service design has a tremendous impact when we
are able to show and re-imagine how the layers of a
service.
3. Fix Broken Processes
Service design helps create broader metrics
through grouping inputs against independent met-
rics.
5. Triangulate
Service Design works to balance an organization’s
score card through better processes and diverse
KPIs.
4. Balanced Business
The tech agnostic nature of service design makes
the discipline incredibly flexible and free to adjust to
reality.
6. Innate Flexibility
COMMON THREADS
• SD grew from competition
AI has grown from academics
• Revels in ambiguity
Seeks to remove ambiguity
• Rooted in creating value
Rooted in logic and reason
• Not scientifically rigorous
Scientifically rigorous
KEY DIFFERENCES
• Live at the intersection of technology and behavior
• Industry agnostic
• Span traditional silos and step on toes
• Small experiments over big leaps
• An infinite amount of room to grow

16. Title
Here
OPPORTUNITIES
FOR AI/SD

17. SERVICE INNOVATION
17© SERV/ 2018. All rights reserved.
Behavior
Technology
Economics

18. 18
Deregulation of the airlines
and financial markets.
The dot-com bubble and the
start of modern data sets.
The rise of the sharing
economy lead by tech upstarts.
Economics and behavior are
shaping so much right now.
Now200720001978
TIMELINE
© SERV/ 2018. All rights reserved.

19. The co-creative nature of service design reduces
risk and find the simplest way to solve complex is-
sues.
2. Reduce Risk
Service design focuses on the value exchange. Fo-
cusing on what people value turns down the noise.
1. Simplicity & Clarity
Service design has a tremendous impact when we
are able to show and re-imagine how the layers of a
service.
3. Fix Broken Processes
Service design helps create broader metrics
through grouping inputs against independent met-
rics.
5. Triangulate
Service Design works to balance an organization’s
score card through better processes and diverse
KPIs.
4. Balanced Business
The tech agnostic nature of service design makes
the discipline incredibly flexible and free to adjust to
reality.
6. Innate Flexibility
“Machine revolutions have
always made us faster and
stronger. Artificial Intelligence
will make us smarter.”
GARRY KASPAROV / CHESS PLAYER

20. Better service enablers
AI is already showing ways to make
services better.
Clarity in organizations
Bad news needs to travel faster.
Man and machine together
Machines do not explain themselves.
Systematic value
AI works specific parts, and SD works
in the more extensive system.
Prototyping ethics
Algorithms carry the bias of their creator.
We can be more proactive.
BLUE
OCEANS
20© SERV/ 2018. All rights reserved.

21. 21
SYSTEMATIC
VALUE
Artificial Intelligence works mostly in closed
systems with a narrow scope while service
design establishes a view of both the full
service and the granular processes underlying
the value a service creates.
Service design can sometime get lost in the
qualitative nature of human behavior. With an
understanding of AI we would be able to see
broad patterns to drill down more effectively.
© SERV/ 2018. All rights reserved.

22. The co-creative nature of service design reduces
risk and find the simplest way to solve complex is-
sues.
2. Reduce Risk
Service design focuses on the value exchange. Fo-
cusing on what people value turns down the noise.
1. Simplicity & Clarity
Service design has a tremendous impact when we
are able to show and re-imagine how the layers of a
service.
3. Fix Broken Processes
Service design helps create broader metrics
through grouping inputs against independent met-
rics.
5. Triangulate
Service Design works to balance an organization’s
score card through better processes and diverse
KPIs.
4. Balanced Business
The tech agnostic nature of service design makes
the discipline incredibly flexible and free to adjust to
reality.
6. Innate Flexibility
“As algorithms are used to automate
important decisions, there is a risk that
bias could become automated, deployed
at scale, and more difficult for the
victims to spot.”
WILL KNIGHT / MIT REVIEW

23. 23
PROTOTYPING
ETHICS
• Triangulate bias
• Prototype algorithms before training
• Monitoring emerging bias in Inferencing
© SERV/ 2018. All rights reserved.

24. The co-creative nature of service design reduces
risk and find the simplest way to solve complex is-
sues.
2. Reduce Risk
Service design focuses on the value exchange. Fo-
cusing on what people value turns down the noise.
1. Simplicity & Clarity
Service design has a tremendous impact when we
are able to show and re-imagine how the layers of a
service.
3. Fix Broken Processes
Service design helps create broader metrics
through grouping inputs against independent met-
rics.
5. Triangulate
Service Design works to balance an organization’s
score card through better processes and diverse
KPIs.
4. Balanced Business
The tech agnostic nature of service design makes
the discipline incredibly flexible and free to adjust to
reality.
6. Innate Flexibility
“The capabilities of machines are
different from and complementary to the
capabilities of humans.”
CHRIS BISHOP / MICROSOFT

25. 25
MAN &
MACHINE
• Accuracy in medicine
• Clarifying confusing legal jargon
• Real-time pattern recognition
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26. 26
BETTER
ENABLERS
• Document analysis
• Autonomous delivery
• Fraud detection
© SERV/ 2018. All rights reserved.

27. Title
Here
STEPS
TO TAKE

28. 28
Respect the tech (Re)Learn math Talk to co-workers Watch & listen
Making and doing enables
experimentation with AI.
Khan Academy is an entirely free
resource for mathematics.
Start learning with the projects
you are on. Take an interest in it.
There are many great documentaries
and podcasts to check out.
MANY PATHS
© SERV/ 2018. All rights reserved.

29. The co-creative nature of service design reduces
risk and find the simplest way to solve complex is-
sues.
2. Reduce Risk
Service design focuses on the value exchange. Fo-
cusing on what people value turns down the noise.
1. Simplicity & Clarity
Service design has a tremendous impact when we
are able to show and re-imagine how the layers of a
service.
3. Fix Broken Processes
Service design helps create broader metrics
through grouping inputs against independent met-
rics.
5. Triangulate
Service Design works to balance an organization’s
score card through better processes and diverse
KPIs.
4. Balanced Business
The tech agnostic nature of service design makes
the discipline incredibly flexible and free to adjust to
reality.
6. Innate Flexibility
Experiment with AI
• Open Source Materials
• Google DIY AI
• AI Experiments w/ Google
• Facebook.ai
Books
• “Prediction Machines”
by Agrawal and Gans
• MIT Technology Review
• Singularity blog
• “Towards Data” on Medium
Videos
• “Alpha Go” (Netflix)
• “The Secret Rules of Modern Living: Algorithms” (Netflix)
• “Garry Kasparov: “Deep Thinking,” Talks at Google (YouTube
• “Artificial Intelligence, the History and Future” (YouTube)
Mathematics
• Descriptive Statistics
• Inferential Statistics
• Multivariate Calculus
Code
• Python
• R
• Tenserflow
RESOURCES
Future of Everything Podcast
• “Artificial Intelligence - With Very Real Biases”
• “The Future of Everything Festival: What’s Next for AI?”
***Don’t forget to also work on your service design capabilities.
© SERV/ 2018. All rights reserved.

30. Title
Here
Title
Here
Thank You
Rich Ekelman
rich@servinnovation.com
www.servinnovation.com/services