What is human-centric design, and why does it matter?

We have a growing problem in making our institutions work for humans. Across society, and especially in business, humans are increasingly treated as resources to be squeezed rather than as individuals to be served. Employees become “human capital” to be optimized; customers become “users” to be converted or upsold. This tendency predates artificial intelligence, but AI threatens to accelerate it dramatically—automating the depersonalization, scaling the indifference, and introducing another layer...