IN SESSION: Designing for Delight

Adam Cheyer, the mind behind Siri, in conversation with Special Projects' Adrian and Clara Westaway about bringing magic to technology interactions. Drawing from his experience as both a technologist and a magician, Cheyer illuminates how principles of wonder and anticipation can transform digital products. Currently serving as VP of AI experience at Airbnb, Cheyer's impressive career also includes founding Viv Labs (acquired by Samsung) and contributing to CALO, one of the largest AI projects in U.S. history.

Adrian and Clara will be co-leading an executive education masterclass in November 2024: Design Thinking & Innovation in Practice.

Adam Cheyer

VP of AI experience, Airbnb

Adam Cheyer is an inventor, entrepreneur, engineering executive, and a pioneer in AI and computer human interfaces. Adam has been a co-founder or founding member of five successful startups, including Siri (sold to Apple, where he led server-side engineering and AI for the Siri assistant), Change.org (the world’s largest petition platform with more than half a billion members), Viv Labs (sold to Samsung, where as VP R&D, Adam led product engineering and developer relations for Samsung’s voice assistant), GamePlanner.AI (sold to Airbnb), and Sentient (massively distributed machine learning, sold to Cognizant).

Currently, Adam is VP of AI Experience at Airbnb. He is also an advisor to several companies, including Project Voice Capital Partners, Otter.ai, Riva Health, Evolv Technologies, Disruptel (acquired by SambaTV), Brilliant Labs, AI Sprouts, and Spatial Labs. Previously, Adam was VP Engineering at Verticalnet (enterprise software) and Dejima (mobile software). Adam also spent more than a decade at SRI International, where his most recent role was as Chief Architect of CALO/PAL, the U.S. government’s largest funded AI project.

In addition to his technology work, Adam is an award-winning magician. He has performed in palaces for presidents, stadiums for students, and on television for Penn and Teller. He has also wowed the crowd during twenty-one shows at the world-famous Magic Castle in Los Angeles. Adam has authored more than 60 publications and 39 patents and served on numerous advisory boards and committees.

Clara Gaggero Westaway

Short Course Co-Leader, Co-founder & Creative Director, Special Projects

Clara is a designer, inventor and educator leveraging human-needs to create meaningful innovation. Her mission is to improve lives through hopeful and sustainable design solutions that encourage well-being and a healthy relationship with technology. Whether this means empowering the elderly to use their mobile phones, reimagining the playground, or helping us focus on the present through calm technology, Clara’s concepts bring optimism and clarity to where society needs it most. Clara has designed award-winning products for the likes of BBC, Braun, Nokia, Google, Samsung, Sonos, Lego, Logitech.

A thought-leader shaping the narrative on human-centred design, she has given talks and led workshops globally. Her critically acclaimed designs have been exhibited at MoMA in NY, Design Museum London and WAGNER:WERK Museum, Vienna.

Clara is a Course Leader of the Design Thinking & Innovation in Practice Executive Masterclass at the Royal College of Art, a faculty member of Oxford University Said Business School OSLP, and has recently been appointed to advise on the Prince of Wales' environmental initiative, Terra Carta Design Lab, mentoring young and emerging designers as they create credible and sustainable solutions to the climate crisis.

She advises entrepreneurs on how to transform compelling ideas into successful businesses as Business Coach at InnovationRCA, the Royal College of Art’s centre for entrepreneurship and commercialisation.

Adrian Westaway

Short Course Co-Leader, Co-founder & Director of Technology and Magic, Special Projects

Adrian is an award-winning designer and inventor whose unique approach to design draws on his two biggest passions: magic and technology. Fascinated by the similarities between the two disciplines, he joins them together in products and experiences that have the ability to not only surprise and delight but prompt positive change for individuals and communities.

His commitment to using design to address the complex challenges we are faced with has seen him consult with and design for Sonos, BBC, Nokia, Google AI, and, most recently, advise for the Prince of Wales' environmental initiative, Terra Carta Design Lab, mentoring young and emerging designers as they create credible and sustainable solutions to the climate crisis.

A thought-leader on design thinking and sustainable innovation he has led workshops and given talks at Innovate UK, Design Museum, FitBit, Google Creative Lab, MIT Architecture, and is on the Advisory Panel for the UK Design Innovation Network, helping deliver the UK Government’s innovation strategy.

Adrian is a Course Leader of the Design & Innovation in Practice Executive Masterclass at the Royal College of Art in London, and a Visiting Faculty at the Copenhagen Institute of Interaction Design. In 2007 Adrian became the first ever James Dyson Fellow, and in 2012 a Fellow of the Royal Commission of 1851. He is also a full member of the Magic Circle.