Open Call Visiting professors, project leaders & industry experts

Open Call Visiting professors, project leaders & industry experts

Master in Design x AI

Domus Academy, Milan

Starting September 2026

Domus Academy invites designers, researchers, technologists, and creative professionals to join the Master in Design x AI as visiting professors, project leaders, and industry experts for the academic year starting September 2026.

The programme explores how designers can create the next generation of AI-infused products, services, and systems, focusing on human experience, interaction, and everyday life. It addresses the evolving relationship between design and artificial intelligence, equipping students to design responsible, meaningful, and innovative AI-enhanced products and services.

We are particularly interested in professionals capable of teaching designers how to design with AI as a material , rather than simply how to use AI tools.

About the Master in Design x AI

Artificial Intelligence is transforming everyday products and services into adaptive, intelligent, and expressive systems capable of anticipating human behaviour and evolving through data. The Master critically examines how designers can shape this transformation through interaction design, product design, and service design.

The programme focuses on designing:

• AI-powered products and smart objects
• Connected ecosystems and services
• Embodied and embedded AI interactions
• Human–AI collaboration and behaviour-aware systems
• Ethical, sustainable, and socially responsible AI experiences

Students learn through studio-based workshops, research-through-design methodologies, and collaborations with industry partners, developing tangible prototypes and speculative concepts for future AI-driven experiences.

Design Vision: From AI as Tool to AI as Material

The programme adopts a design perspective in which artificial intelligence is treated as a design material , a medium with distinct behaviours, affordances, and constraints.

Rather than engineering models, designers needs to develop material literacy , learning how AI behaves within products, environments, and everyday interactions.

This perspective informs the concept of Everyday AI , a design framework exploring how intelligence manifests in ordinary life across objects, environments, and relationships.

Key themes include:

• Designing AI experiences that are contextual, embodied, and integrated into daily life
• Moving beyond interfaces toward ambient and embedded intelligence
• Designing new rituals and behaviours emerging from AI-infused environments
• Understanding AI within distributed ecosystems of agents, objects, and services

Teaching Areas

We are seeking faculty with expertise in one or more of the following domains:

AI Product & Interaction Design

• Designing AI-enhanced products and connected devices
• Smart objects and adaptive physical interfaces
• AI-driven user experience and interaction design

Embedded & Physical AI

• AI embedded in everyday objects
• Tangible and embodied interaction
• Robotics and Human–Robot Interaction
• Ambient and spatial AI systems
• AI product/service ecosystems

Ethical & Responsible AI Design

• Transparency and explainability
• Responsible and sustainable AI
• Data ethics and algorithmic biases
• Social impact of intelligent systems

Research Methods for AI Design

• Research-through-design
• Speculative critical design
• Experimental design methodologies
• Design research for emerging technologies

Human–AI Interaction & HCI

• Human–Computer Interaction
• Human–AI collaboration
• Human–Robot interaction
• Multimodal interfaces
• Conversational and agentive systems

Multimodal AI Experiences

• Designing interactions combining vision, speech, gesture, and sensors
• AI-driven perception systems
• Context-aware and adaptive interfaces
• Multimodal storytelling and experience design

Ecosystems & Systems Design

• AI-enabled product-service systems
• Distributed cognition and multi-agent systems
• Designing AI experiences across objects, environments, and infrastructures

Studio & Workshop Teaching

Faculty may lead or contribute to studio-based workshops, where students:

• Explore AI as a design material
• Develop experimental prototypes
• Design AI-infused objects, services, or ecosystems
• Work with industry partners and real-world briefs
• Apply research-through-design methodology

Workshops often involve conceptual exploration, rapid prototyping, and speculative scenarios that investigate how AI reshapes everyday life.

Desired Professional Background

We are looking for creative professionals with a strong background in:

• Interaction Design
• Product/Service Design
• AI Product Design
• Human–Computer Interaction
• Robotics or Human–Robot Interaction
• Creative Technology
• Design Research
• Innovation Design

Applicants may come from:

• Design studios
• Technology companies
• AI startups
• Research labs
• Institutions
• Innovation consultancies

Industry experience in companies working with AI-enabled products or services is highly valued.

Required Competencies

Candidates should demonstrate the ability to:

• Teach designers how to design AI-powered products and services
• Translate complex technological concepts into design practice
• Guide students in prototyping AI interactions
• Integrate technical possibilities with human experience
• Lead studio-based design education
• Facilitate interdisciplinary collaboration between design and technology
• Fluency in English; all teaching activities, lectures, workshops, and project reviews are conducted in English

Generative AI Tools (Optional but Valued)

While the focus of the programme is designing AI-infused systems rather than simply using AI tools , expertise in generative AI workflows is more than welcome.

Relevant tools may include:

• ChatGPT
• Gemini
• Claude
• Midjourney
• Stable Diffusion / Stability AI
• Nano Banana PRO

Experience with AI video generation tools such as:

• Runway
• Pika
• Luma Dream Machine
• Sora (or comparable tools)

is considered a strong advantage when teaching concept visualisation, speculative scenarios, and AI-assisted design workflows.

Teaching Format

Faculty may contribute through:

• Short intensive workshops
• Studio project leadership
• Lectures, masterclasses and seminars
• Industry project supervision
• Final project mentoring

The programme follows a hands-on, project-based methodology where students develop projects in collaboration with industry partners and external experts.

Location

Domus Academy

Milan, Italy

Ideal Profile

The ideal candidate is someone who:

• Thinks of AI not only as technology but as a design material and medium
• Is excited by designing the future of everyday intelligence
• Can bridge design, technology, and culture
• Is comfortable teaching in a studio-based design environment
• Brings industry insight and experimental thinking to the classroom

How to Apply

Please submit:

• CV
• Portfolio
• Short cover letter
• Relevant links (if applicable)

In your cover letter, please outline your leadership approach, your teaching perspective, and your alignment with Domus Academy’s educational vision.

According to the GDPR 679/16 we inform you that the treatment of Personal Data contained in your resume, will respect the principles of legality, fairness and transparency and protection of your privacy and your rights. We only use the personal data we collect for the recruiting activities, such as your name, surname, address, email address, educational and employment background and job qualifications.