Building with AI: From Storytelling to Real Products

I was delighted to join Silja Kim Bast, Breezm's Chief Business Officer, in her midtown NYC shop to learn how they use 3D modeling and AI design innovation to make their stylish, lightweight, custom-fit glasses. Together with Sally Chung, an AI Design Advisor and Professor at Parsons School of Design & Founder of Designpreneurs, we discussed how the design world uniquely uses AI tools, not only to reduce the cost and time of production, but also to differentiate their products and brands.

Here are some highlights from our discussion:

Human-in-the-loop: AI & Storytelling
We discussed how AI is reshaping content creation for both startups and corporates. Authenticity matters more than ever and brands can avoid "AI-average" through high-quality storytelling. Silja shared how Breezm utilizes AI for product storytelling while maintaining a strong human creative voice through experienced copywriters. Sally shared how Breezm's participation in the SXSW AI x Storytelling Hackathon was a case study in connecting creative their AI storytelling to inspire their customers and showcase personalization with AI. Breezm’s success demonstrated that AI storytelling works best when supported by a strong brand vision. While many fashion brands experimented with AI-generated storytelling and collaborations with AI creators, Breezm’s focus on AI-powered customization made the experience feel authentic, cohesive, and emotionally engaging rather than simply trend-driven.

AI Design and Product role transformation
As AI takes over more of the execution layer, we discussed how product and design roles are evolving, and how the conversation may shift from traditional Product-Market Fit toward “Agent-Market Fit,” where products are increasingly designed not only for humans, but also for AI agents and autonomous systems. Sally offered perspective on what capabilities, such as taste, systems thinking, human in the loop in the process becomes most valuable in the new agent-market fit era.We touched on how the future of design may become increasingly "post-UI", where experience design focuses less on visual interfaces alone, and more on systems, logic, behavior/service design behind the screens, and interactions between humans, agents, and robotics system. As AI lowers the barrier to building, the distinction between designer, engineer, and founder becomes increasingly blurred. In this new era, competitive advantage may come less from execution alone, and more from who can act as the orchestrator, combining systems thinking, strategic vision, strong creative direction, and the ability to design meaningful interactions between humans and AI systems.