I asked an AI to plan my Summer Friday—and it didn’t just suggest activities. It shaped a vibe. While still early, this hints at how AI could evolve from task-doer to experience co-designer.
I gave an AI assistant a simple task: plan my ideal Summer Friday.
Here’s what it delivered:
- 11:00 AM: “Wrap up work early” (fair—mentally, I clocked out at 9:17)
- 12:00 PM: “Picnic in the park with watermelon, a paperback, and ambient jazz”
- 2:00 PM: “Pop-up museum exhibit—tickets secured in advance”
- 4:00 PM: “Aperol spritz hour at a rooftop bar”
- 6:00 PM: “Sunset walk, phone off, mind clear”
- 8:00 PM: “Watch Chef—a ‘feel-good film with strong summer energy’”
At first glance, it’s just a string of pleasant suggestions. But what caught my attention wasn’t the novelty—it was the coherence. The day had rhythm. It unfolded with a kind of emotional pacing that felt intentional.
But let’s be clear: some of that coherence is in the eye of the beholder.
We’re meaning-making machines. Humans are wired to see patterns—even when systems don’t consciously design them. Still, the impression of flow matters—because experience is often about perceived structure as much as engineered design.
And that impression wasn’t entirely random.
What’s Actually Happening Behind the Curtain
The AI didn’t invent this sequence out of thin air. It’s drawing on massive amounts of cultural data—articles, itineraries, lifestyle content, mood boards. In short, templates. It’s learned what “an ideal day” often looks like, and can remix the pattern convincingly.
So no, this isn’t true experience design. But it’s a signal of how AI can approximate it—by drawing from aesthetic, emotional, and temporal cues embedded in the culture it was trained on.
That matters. Because most current AI tools are still transactional—summarize this, write that, schedule this. But this experiment points to something else: AI inching toward flow awareness.
Why This Matters for Service Innovation
For service firms—travel, wellness, hospitality, luxury—their value doesn’t lie in raw execution. It lies in how experiences unfold, emotionally and sequentially.
This AI didn’t get it perfect. But it offered a lightweight version of what service designers spend real time crafting: mood, pacing, transitions, tone.
The real takeaway: AI doesn’t need to feel emotions to start shaping the structure of an experience that feels emotionally coherent.
And as it continues to absorb more patterns of human life—our preferences, our rhythms, our soft edges—it may get better at stitching those experiences together.
Final Thoughts
This isn’t emotional intelligence. It’s not real curation. But it is a glimpse.
A glimpse at how AI might begin to support—not just what we do—but how we feel across time. Not by replacing human intuition, but by learning to mimic its cadence.
And for service-based businesses, that’s the quiet revolution to watch:
Not just automation, but atmosphere. Not just intelligence, but intention—real or perceived.
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