How Design Becomes Strategic Again with Shivesh Boodhram

Moving from designing interfaces to designing context-aware decision experiences. As AI, personalisation, and predictive technologies rapidly reshape digital experiences, UX is entering a major shift — from designing interfaces to designing contextual systems. In this talk, Shivesh Boodhram shares key insights and patterns observed at Converge Africa 2026, where leaders across retail, fintech, commerce, and AI all pointed toward the same underlying challenge: understanding customer intent in real time. The session explores how search is evolving into decision support, why most personalisation strategies remain superficial, and how AI will either elevate or amplify poor customer experiences depending on the quality of behavioural understanding behind it. Rather than focusing on hype, this talk grounds AI and experience design in practical business realities, customer trust, and human-centred thinking — challenging UX professionals to rethink their role in a world increasingly driven by predictive and contextual experiences. About the speaker Shivesh Boodhram is a Senior Product Designer at Vodacom with experience spanning fintech, insurance, AI-driven products, and enterprise UX strategy. Over the past decade, he has worked across consulting, telecommunications, and emerging technology environments — helping organisations design customer-centred digital products while advancing UX maturity and strategic design thinking within large businesses. His work focuses on the intersection of behavioural understanding, AI, customer experience, and commercial impact, with a strong belief that the future of design lies in creating more contextual, human, and intelligent systems.