We Were Never Just Mappers In the age of AI, strategy is no longer a static plan – it is a living, sensing system that learns, forecasts and adapts in real time. Traditional service design, once rooted in experience mapping and participatory workshops, is now evolving into the orchestration of intelligent infrastructures: systems that don’t just serve, but continuously evolve. AI, strategy is no longer a static plan – it is a living, sensing system that learns, forecasts and adapts in real time. Traditional service design, once rooted in experience mapping and participatory workshops, is now evolving into the orchestration of intelligent infrastructures: systems that don’t just serve, but continuously evolve.

Design plays a critical role in supporting organisations in regulated sectors, not just to meet cost, growth, and risk imperatives, but also to deliver outcomes that consider purpose, wellbeing, sustainability, and ultimately, a fair exchange of value for all stakeholders.

In the Midwest region of the USA, in a city known for its legacy of innovation and resilience, is a leading health system and one of the region’s largest employers. They are investing in a major facility expansion and transforming their workforce development strategy to meet future talent needs and empower the local community.

Switzerland's second-largest bank transformed its 200-year-old hiring process using service design to create a seamless, candidate-first experience. A cross-functional team overhauled digital interfaces, internal culture and recruitment processes by mapping pain points, creating unified service blueprints and measuring candidate satisfaction and team collaboration improvements. This case study provides a roadmap for organisations competing for talent in today's market.

The AI era is upon us. The challenge we currently face is to move beyond basic awareness and actively integrate AI across the organisation. However, unlocking the full potential of AI is more than a technological challenge – it is a deeply human one. We need to strengthen the very qualities that define us as human, as they will matter more, not less, in an AI-powered future.

The circular economy opens up major opportunities to drive efficiency, build resilience and unlock growth across organisations and sectors. As catalysts, connectors and curators, service designers can turn circular ambitions into lasting impact.

This article explores how service design can redefine the university experience and presents the case of Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez (UAI) in Chile.

Jumbo and Santa Isabel are two Chilean supermarket chains belonging to the Cencosud group which, although sharing the same service vision, cater to different customer segments. Jumbo focuses on quality, variety and an extensive shopping experience, while Santa Isabel prioritises convenience, speed and competitive prices.

Service design has long focused on making sense of complexity – mostly through established qualitative methods. For decades, we have mapped customer journeys, visualised stakeholder relationships and built service blueprints to better understand human experiences.

Amid rising material excess, professional organisers (POs) offer more than tidy homes, they support emotional transformation. Empathetic, behaviour-led approach from PO offers valuable insights for service designers, revealing opportunities to create more sustainable, inclusive, and human-centred services that foster lasting change in people’s lives.

IndonesiaNEXT – a telecommunications company’s Corporate Social Responsibility initiative, bridges Indonesia’s skills gap through learner-centered, role-based upskilling. Addressing educational disparities and industry demands, the program fosters inclusive talent development across 38 provinces, aligning with Indonesia’s 2045 digital vision. This article explores its co-designed, scalable certification pathways.

This article explores how service design can respond to one of the most persistent business challenges of our time: the high failure rate of transformation efforts. One of the biggest challenges that service designers face in transformation work is legitimacy – how do you influence change when you don’t control the levers of power?

Innovation has never mattered more. Service providers are squeezed between the push for operational excellence, the pull of rising customer expectations, the pressure of constant change and the promise of emerging technologies. In volatile times, leaders with carefully curated innovation portfolios lead with clarity and conviction.

In this interview, Touchpoint Editor-in-Chief Jesse Grimes speaks to the director of Service Works, a UK-based training and consultancy organisation which specialises in the public sector.

Over the past decade, much of what was called ‘business transformation’ has been synonymous with digitisation, reorganisations and efficiency drives. Today, that model is reaching its limits. With customer expectations rising, AI-first initiatives accelerating and industry boundaries dissolving, transformation itself is being transformed. The days of episodic, top-down initiatives are giving way to transformation as a constant operating state – continuous, adaptive, collaborative and purpose-led.

Service design has matured beyond its origins to become a transformative force within organisations. As businesses and public institutions face complex challenges, service design offers a path toward sustainable, human-centred transformation.