Service Design Tools

AI Functionalities Cards

AI offers incredible potential, but how do you translate that into real-world applications? Functionality cards bridge this gap. They illustrate AI capabilities concretely, showing what's feasible and already in use. Teams often either underestimate AI (thinking only chatbots) or overestimate it (expecting magic). These cards provide a grounded view of current capabilities and limitations.

Duration
2 hours
Group Size
4-8
Category
Service Design Tools
Difficulty
Easy

  • Develop a shared understanding of AI capabilities.

  • Match AI functionalities to user needs and service gaps.

  • Generate realistic AI-enhanced service concepts based on current tech.

  • Make informed decisions about AI implementation value and complexity.


  • Explored AI functionalities.

  • Identified AI opportunities.

  • Established a foundation for AI integration.

Not all AI functionalities apply to all domains. Tailor the card set to your context. For manufacturing, emphasize computer vision and predictive maintenance. For content services, focus on NLP and recommendation systems. Don't use too many cards; 8-12 relevant ones are enough. Consider custom cards for domain-specific AI. Teams often want to use AI everywhere. Challenge this: "What problem does this solve that simpler solutions don't?" AI adds complexity, cost, and failure points. It should deliver clear value. The best AI solves real problems; the worst seeks problems to solve. Non-technical participants may propose impossible ideas. That's fine for ideation, but check reality early. "Real-time surgery video analysis" sounds great but needs edge computing, training data, medical certification, and new hardware. "Flagging unusual transactions" is standard. Distinguish between "possible someday" and "practical now." Every AI capability needs data, often labeled data. Without it, you can't build it quickly or cheaply. When evaluating concepts, ask: "Where does the training data come from? How much do we need? How do we label it? Do we have it?" Most AI projects fail on data. Cards should indicate typical data requirements. AI isn't perfect. It's probabilistic. For each concept, ask: "What's the acceptable error rate? What happens when it's wrong?" A 70% accurate recommendation engine is fine; a 70% accurate diagnostic AI is dangerous. Design for failure. Users need to know when they're interacting with AI. "Black box" AI erodes trust. Plan: How do we explain this to users? How do they give feedback? How do they override it? Good AI augments human judgment; bad AI replaces it without recourse. Cards should indicate implementation difficulty. Some AI capabilities are commoditized (sentiment analysis, image recognition, chatbots); others require custom development. Distinguish between "integrate an API" and "build from scratch." Start with the former. AI introduces bias, privacy, and fairness concerns. Ask: Whose data are we using? Could this discriminate? Is this transparent? Are we respecting privacy? What are the downstream consequences? Unethical AI fails.

  1. Review Available AI Functionalities (30 minutes):

Go through the AI functionality cards as a group. Each card describes a capability (natural language processing, computer vision, predictive analytics, recommendation systems, etc.) with real examples and limitations. Discuss what each one means. "Predictive analytics" is vague; "forecasting equipment failure 48 hours before it happens based on sensor data" is concrete. Ensure everyone understands possibilities and constraints.

  1. Map Your Current Service (20 minutes):

Lay out your service journey, touchpoints, or user workflows. Use existing maps (service blueprint, user journey, process flow). If none exists, create a quick sketch. The goal: see all user interaction points or behind-the-scenes service operations. This map helps identify potential AI application areas.

  1. Identify Opportunity Areas (25 minutes):

Review your service map with the AI cards. For each touchpoint or workflow step, ask: Which AI functionalities could improve this? Identify matches: "This step involves document analysis - could use natural language processing" or "Users get lost here - might benefit from personalization." Mark promising areas. Look for patterns - multiple touchpoints benefiting from the same AI capability are interesting.

  1. Generate AI-Enhanced Concepts (30 minutes):

Pick your 3-4 most promising opportunity areas. For each, sketch how AI would work. Not just "add AI" but be specific: "When a user uploads a contract, NLP extracts key terms automatically, highlights unusual clauses, compares to past contracts, and suggests edits." Include what the AI does, required data, user experience, and what happens on failure (it will happen sometimes).

  1. Reality Check (15 minutes):

Assess each concept honestly: Do we have the necessary data? The technical capability? What's the required accuracy? What happens if it fails? How much will it cost? Would users actually want this? The cards provide realism, showing standard versus advanced options. Standard capabilities are lower risk; advanced ones have higher risk but potentially higher reward.

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For Facilitators

  • Review participant profiles and expectations
  • Prepare all materials and supplies
  • Test technology and room setup

For Participants

  • Complete pre-session survey
  • Review background materials
  • Prepare examples or case studies

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  • AI functionality cards (physical or digital).

  • Current service map, user journey, or process documentation.

  • Large wall space or digital board for mapping.

  • Sticky notes.

  • Whiteboard.

  • Reality check framework (data needs, accuracy requirements, failure modes).

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