Trust isn't a feature-it's the interface

"Every product team is chasing the same dream right now - smarter, faster, more "AI-powered." But in all that optimization, we forget the thing no model can predict: what it feels like to trust a system you can't see. As Kym Primrose pointed out in "AI Won't Kill UX - We Will", the real threat to user experience isn't technology itself - it's when we let convenience replace care. I see that same tension in building apps that move money: AI isn't what erodes trust."

"Poorly designed experiences do. I've spent the last few years building payments, billing, and financial systems - the kinds of products where trust isn't abstract. It's measurable. It's the number of support tickets that come in from customers convinced they've been double-charged when the system errors out - proof that even the best checkout flow can still break confidence in a single glitch. When you're designing for money, precision isn't optional. If a dashboard lags, people panic. If an automated system "decides" something for them,"

Product teams prioritize AI-powered features, optimizing for speed and intelligence while overlooking the unquantifiable feeling of trusting invisible systems. In payments and billing, trust is measurable through support tickets from users who believe they were double-charged after system errors. Precision is mandatory: dashboard lag provokes panic and opaque automated decisions prompt users to question whether they were charged. The core risk to user experience is replacing care with convenience; poorly designed experiences, not AI, erode trust. Badges that claim 'AI-powered' are superficial unless paired with clear, reliable interfaces that preserve transparency and prevent single glitches from breaking confidence.

Read at Medium