Tech has changed / notes from my San Francisco trip

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OK, where were we? Last time we spoke I was about to fly to Amsterdam for the aixdesign.co festival and then to Canada to speak at Interface. Well, a lot more happened since then:

Amsterdam > Canada > upstate New York > Copenhagen > Gotenburg > Norway all around > San Francisco > so much more to come: Hatch in Berlin next week, TED AI Vienna (panelist, OMG) end of September > Adobe MAX Los Angeles

One other important thing I did is I got deeper into art x philosophy x futurism with a residency at an Innovation Leader. I’m documenting my visual research x ideas about future on a new IG page called Soft Machines.

Oh, and I also joined Lummi as an AI creator.

a lot of fun stuff going on, I can’t keep up with myself sometimes ⛹

it was a great summer ❤️‍🔥

*but it also made me slower on the newsletter front. I ask for your forgiveness.

So, the notes.

This was my first-ever visit to San Francisco, and I’m still processing what I saw, felt, and learned. It was an intense, perspective-shifting experience that brought up big questions about where tech is heading, what it means to be a creator today, and how our industry is evolving in real time.

a city built for a different era

The physical scale of San Francisco’s tech industry felt totally overwhelming. Everywhere I looked / on maps, on the street around me / were giant headquarters + huge parks of companies that have shaped our digital lives. Salesforce Tower with its 61 floors and an actual park. Massive campuses that feel like small cities. These spaces were built for a world where work was centralized + physical.

But we’re now living in a time of remote work, decentralized teams, async collaboration, and AI-first workflows. And in that context, these enormous concrete monuments feel a little eerie, like remnants of a past world. They're impressive, yes, but also a bit out of sync with what’s emerging. I found it dystopic tbh.

when everything is AI, nothing is AI

The saturation of AI in San Francisco was overwhelming. Every billboard had to have “AI” in it, and I had to document everything bc it was surreal. It felt less like a city and more like a cult camp. AI is the new religion here. It’s in every conversation, every coffee shop, every casual chat on the street.

But when every company claims to be an “AI company,” does the term even mean anything anymore?

It resembled a gold rush. Many companies are inflating their AI claims just to survive and stay relevant, even if they're not truly AI-first. The ones that are building meaningful, AI-native experiences? Few and quiet.

my own creative evolution

On a personal level, this trip felt like a turning point. Over the past year, I’ve felt a shift in how I create and how I define myself. Visiting SF just crystallized it.

I no longer feel like just a designer. I feel like a creator. Or even an imaginator. Visionary, artist, technologist, remixer of culture and elements / it’s becoming increasingly difficult to capture + communicate my identity.

AI tools have given me what I can only describe as superpowers. I can now create 3D animations, generate visual experiments, and build tools that would have been far beyond my scope just a few years ago. And I love how everything feels interconnected. Visual play inspires content ideas. Code experiments turn into narratives. Tools flow into each other like never before.

Imagination has become my primary creative surface. And paradoxically, AI isn’t replacing me, it’s helping me find parts of myself I didn’t know how to access before.

the industry is morphing in real time

The product development culture I’ve known for a decade has also shifted. We used to research → learn → build → iterate. But in 2025, it’s more like build → learn → iterate → rebuild. The pace is too fast to wait around for perfect insights. Sometimes, you just have to ship and learn on the fly.

The quality bar? It’s lower in many places. But that's a strategic tradeoff, because the cost of not moving fast can be higher than the cost of shipping something imperfect and evolving it later.

Another big shift: talent is being hunted harder than ever before. I kept hearing stories of people being recruited aggressively / Meta throwing out wild offers that still get rejected. If you’re good, proven, and visible the opportunities are abundant. That part of the industry feels alive, chaotic, and hopeful.

community moments that mattered

One of the most fulfilling parts of the trip was hosting my first-ever San Francisco meetup. I wanted to create space for real human connection, outside the algorithm, outside the screen. The turnout was incredible, and it inspired me to do more of these, wherever I go next.

I also started a WhatsApp community during the trip. It now has over 300 people, designers, creators, builders from around the world. The mission is simple: bring the global design community closer together / because we need this more than ever.

And finally, I attended the Adobe AI VIP Summit, a small but powerful gathering of fewer than 30 creators. Filmmakers, illustrators, designers, artists. Each with a unique perspective on how AI is shaping their craft. The conversations there still echo in my head. I came home energized, inspired, and filled with new ideas I can’t wait to test.

random notes over 🫡

San Francisco was everything I expected + and nothing I expected. It showed me the tension between legacy and future, between human ambition and technological acceleration.

But more than anything, it prompted me (pun intended!) to ask myself:
What kind of creator do I want to be in this new world?
Because now, more than ever, we get to choose. 💋

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Don’t forget to share this if it was interesting (enough) 🩷

/ for AI visual explorations check out Soft Machines

AI & Design Love, Ioana 🪩