Designing With Intelligence: How Adelia Schleusz and What If LAB Are Harnessing AI for Human-Centered Futures

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Written by Rhiannon Frater

The conversation about artificial intelligence has become so loud, so quickly, that it can be hard to hear what is actually new. In the design world, the question is not simply what AI can do, but how it changes the very process of imagining and building. For Adelia Schleusz, founder of What If LAB, the rise of AI is not a threat to creativity but a chance to redefine it.

Her consultancy exists at the intersection of vision and pragmatism. What If LAB was built on the idea that imagination-driven problem solving, transdisciplinary expertise, and a people-planet focus can transform the way communities and ecosystems evolve. Now, as generative tools and data-driven platforms accelerate design cycles, Schleusz is making the case that these systems can expand possibility without erasing the human center of the work.

“We have to be co-creating with AI,” she explains. “The role of the designer is not going away, but it is shifting. We are curators, ethicists, storytellers. We guide these generative systems the same way we guide stakeholder workshops or visioning sessions. The technology is powerful, but it still needs a human hand to set the intent.”

Agility in a Changing Landscape

The pace of technological change often feels like a jet in mid-flight, being engineered as it soars. For designers, Schleusz believes agility is the new baseline skill. AI can iterate faster, simulate more complex conditions, and track environmental data with unprecedented detail. The challenge is not simply keeping up, but staying grounded in purpose while the tools multiply.

Her approach emphasizes beginning every project with clarity about intent. Who is this for? What impact should it have? Why does it matter? By returning to these questions, What If LAB resists the temptation to use AI as a shortcut to solutions. Instead, Schleusz frames it as a collaborator, capable of expanding the field of possibilities rather than narrowing it.

AI as Accelerator, Not Replacement

The opportunities are expansive. AI can accelerate workflows, offer stronger data for informed decision-making, and simulate outcomes in ways that allow clients to see, feel, and test environments before they are built. Virtual reality models, biometric tracking, and responsive design layers make it possible to understand stress, comfort, and sensory impact in real time.

This is not about efficiency alone. It is about dreaming faster and deeper. “When we simulate environments with these tools, we are not only making the process more efficient,” Schleusz says. “We are creating richer experiences that lean in to deeply immersive and emotive spaces. The lighting, the sound, the materials, still as fundamental in design and now layering 'how' the human body and mind sense an environment.”

The Risk of Uniformity

Still, she acknowledges a common worry: that AI will flatten design into something uniform. The danger, she suggests, is not in the technology itself but in the accountability of the people using it. Under the pressure of deadlines and profitability, designers might lean on AI to produce quick, predictable results rather than imaginative breakthroughs.

“The universal concern is that we will skip the deeper process,” Schleusz says. “If we jump to solutions without guiding the systems with care, we risk ending up with designs that repeat the status quo. It takes discipline to keep asking the hard questions and to use AI to explore, not to settle.”

This is where Schleusz draws a line of distinction. Her role is to continually return teams to the “why” of the project, to insist on alignment with the North Star. By embedding accountability into the process, she ensures that AI is not simply producing answers but opening possibilities.

A Catalyst for Sustainable Transformation

What If LAB does not operate in a vacuum of novelty. Its mission is to deliver sustainable transformation that respects both human well-being and environmental stewardship. Here, too, AI becomes an ally. By tracking material science data, carbon footprints, and systems interactions, designers can make choices that are not only imaginative but responsible.

This dual commitment - to creativity and to sustainability - positions Schleusz as a catalyst in industries struggling to reconcile speed with impact. The rise of AI, she argues, does not absolve designers of responsibility. It raises the stakes, making ethical guidance more essential than ever.

Immersive Futures

The future of design, Schleusz believes, is not just about efficiency but about awakening imagination. AI plays a dual role in that journey. As a workflow partner, it can shoulder the technical load: analyzing data streams, modeling outcomes, and automating what once consumed hours of labor. But its greater promise lies in its capacity to help designers dream deeper, opening pathways into worlds that were previously impossible to envision.

“Design is becoming inherently more immersive,” Schleusz says. “With AI, we can move beyond static spaces and begin shaping environments that sense, respond, and evolve alongside the people within them. This is a shift toward spaces that are alive.”

Already, pioneers are exploring what this means. International art collective TeamLAB, for instance, weaves together art, science, and technology to create living environments of light and sound that react to human presence.

For Schleusz, such work is only the beginning. She imagines a near future where multisensory design becomes the norm, where architecture listens, interiors feel, and entire environments become dynamic ecosystems that are adaptive, transformative, and profoundly human.

A Thought Leader for the Next Era

The credibility of a thought leader comes not from adopting every new tool but from showing how those tools serve a larger vision. Schleusz embodies that balance. She embraces AI as a collaborator while insisting on accountability, human intuition, and planetary responsibility.

In an industry where the allure of acceleration can overshadow intent, her voice is steady. The rise of AI is inevitable. What it does for design will depend on who is guiding the process. With What If LAB, Adelia Schleusz is demonstrating how to guide it wisely, anchoring innovation in imagination, ethics, and the enduring human need to ask “what if.”

To learn more or explore collaboration, visit whatif-lab.com.