Should I design for humans or machines?

The useful part

Rethinking UX as we start designing for agents and automation "User" has traditionally meant one thing: a person. The user is someone who navigates an interface, scans text/visuals, and makes decisions. UX/UI has always been about "reducing friction" between humans and the products they use.

How it works

• In Design systems, I've been running into a different kind of "user"…it's not a person, but a machine.
• UI component guidelines that followed "human-readable" conventions are being pressure-tested (especially the guidelines that only live in Figma comments or designer's heads).
• Can the user (whoever that is) understand the intent?" Recently, I read The Design of Everyday Things by Don Norman, and this imbalance became even more apparent.
• Documentation that needed to be clear to only designers and engineers is now expected to be parsed by AI tools.
• What happens when "the system" becomes a collaborator or even the sole contributor?

What to take from it

So if UX has always been about designing for people and human understanding, what does it mean to also design for machines and their interpretation? Human-centered design doesn't suit machine constraints Human-centered design has been built around the idea that design should adapt to the way people think…not the way a system is structured.

Details worth keeping

UX and the design process are heavily evolving. I'm left asking, "Are the guidelines explicit and structured enough?