Overview
Three chapters. Three years. The same question each time: what can this actually do — and what does it take to make the output feel like something?
Chapter 1 — Early Exploration
I spent much of 2022 independently testing every AI tool I could get my hands on — Midjourney, Runway, ElevenLabs, early ChatGPT — not to learn workflows, but to understand what the outputs actually were and what they needed to become something.
I made multimedia pieces pulling from all of it: generated imagery, AI-synthesized voice, video, text. I wanted to know where the ceiling was, what human craft was still doing that automation wasn't, and where the seams showed. That year of independent work became the lens I brought to everything that followed.
There was no clear goal, just calibration.
Chapter 2 — Validation
2023 was a big year for experience design. AI was everywhere and Vision Pro, the rumoured saving grace of XR, was finally released. Strivr launched an innovation studio to explore what this meant for workplace performance — and I was brought in to lead it.
The work was conversational AI on Vision Pro: branching dialogue experiences for soft skills training including persuasion, de-escalation, and emergency response. Built in partnership with a client, each experience was designed to respond to the learner in real time, shifting based on tone, response time, and keyword triggers.
The hardware was remarkable for immersive, contained experiences. For on-the-job guidance, the form factor still asked too much of the person wearing it.
Chapter 3 — Experimentation
We began experimenting with wearable capture in real working environments, testing what AI could actually perceive from a worker's perspective. Low friction, real conditions, real feedback.
Going onsite with customers to test hardware and teach production methods made me the most embedded person on the product outside of engineering. That field knowledge shaped everything I made: product narrative, visual identity, and a hero video produced on a $0 budget combining photography, videography, and AI-assisted VFX.
What I Learned
From personal experiments with raw generative tools, to leading an innovation studio on emerging hardware, to being the most embedded creative on a real product in the field — each chapter asked the same question and returned a more specific answer.