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The Conference on the Future of Europe is a unique and timely opportunity for European citizens to debate
on Europe’s challenges and priorities. The Conference is placed under the authority of the three institutions,
represented by the President of the European Parliament, the President of the Council and the President of
the European Commission, acting as its Joint Presidency.
The Emotion Tech Forum contributes to the discussion on Technology for People, a key topic in the Digital
Transformation category. This year’s agenda features the Head of the Nokia Chicago Innovation Center, José
de Francisco, a recent recipient of a Design & Innovation Global Award, who will join speakers from the
European Commission’s Directorate-General for Communications Networks, Content and Technology, UK
Government’s Digital Services, City of Helsinki, ONCE, Microsoft, Cisco, Adobe, EY and Baufest.
The annual Emotion Tech Forum informs a new set of digital initiatives that the Government of the Region of
Murcia is implementing in Spain through the Integra Foundation to improve citizens’ quality of life with
people-centered technology.

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1 December 2021 Making Tech Human with QXbD 10:00 AM CET
Quality eXperiences by Design
Digital solutions are fueling today’s experience economy at a global scale in a constantly evolving landscape with
unprecedented speed. The professional design craft is re-emerging not only as an outcome of societal dynamics but,
most critically, as a change agent that shapes culture by placing people’s values and quality considerations at the
forefront. In this session we will discuss how to innovate with QXbD, Quality eXperiences by Design, jointly with HCAI,
Human Centered Artificial Intelligence and Affective Computing for ‘as a Service’ models.
José de Francisco is the Chief Designer at Nokia Cloud & Network Services, the software leader in the global
telecommunications sector, and Head of Nokia’s Chicago Innovation Center, an interdisciplinary R&D facility involving
all of the company’s business groups. His professional experience encompasses leadership responsibilities in strategy,
design, product management, research, new ventures and marketing. Jose is an award-winning designer and a
Distinguished Member (DMTS) of Bell Labs for work on next generation mobile platforms, operations and applications.
https://videopress.com/v/tpeTndR5

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Discussion Outline
1.- [00:00] Introduction
2.- [00:48] Digital Technologies in Context
3.- [03:27] The Experience Economy and the ‘as a Service’ Model
4.- [09:16] A Designer’s Perspective
5.- [11:40] QXbD, Quality eXperiences by Design
6.- [14:52] HC AI, Human Centered Artificial Intelligence
7.- [18:41] Emotion Technology: Affective Computing
8.- [22:22] Artificial Intelligence: Concerns and Opportunities
Interview Transcript
[00:00 / 25:00] Welcome to the session on ‘Making Tech Human with QXbD.’ We will have an open
discussion with Jose de Francisco.
José is a Chief Designer at Nokia’s Cloud and Network Services Group. He is also a Distinguished Member of
Bell Labs and Head of the Nokia Chicago Innovation Center, where we are having this interview today. His
current work focuses on HC AI, Human Centered Artificial Intelligence.
Hi José, welcome to the Emotion Tech Forum.
Hi, thanks for the opportunity to participate in this year’s forum.

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[00:48 / 25:00] We are 21 years into the 21th century and are experiencing unprecedented challenges.
How would you characterize the state of today’s digital technologies?
These are changing times, which is putting our generation to the test. What is, perhaps, different this time
around is the scale, scope and speed of the shifts, and we are all looking forward to pivoting out of the
ongoing pandemic.
The common thread across the board is really about everyone’s and all things’ new ability to not just connect
and but also interact and network, which shapes a digital spinal cord. But, following the spinal cord analogy,
that human-made nervous system also needs the brains to serve our needs, and that is where Artificial
Intelligence gets the spotlight.
Regarding digital tech across the board, I would highlight the quest for greater connectivity, which is fostering
a wide variety of digital services that we get to experience anywhere on demand. 5G and Cloud Computing
are two of the key enabling technologies among several others.
What we call ‘Digital Transformation’ is also applied across physical and digital domains to equip not just the
usual devices such as smart phones, but also day-to-day objects, appliances and wearables with the ability to
learn and adapt to our individual needs.
Another thought that comes to mind is the emergence of additive manufacturing, which means that we can
also 3D-print custom goods on the spot, locally, individually. And that last thought leads me to follow with
flexible manufacturing and supply chains in the context of what’s known as Industry 4.0. By the same token,
there is a new world of real-life possibilities for ‘smart cities’ and a new generation of health and public
services.
The main thing here is that rather than imposing the exact same product or service on everyone, digital
transformation brings along ease of customization, which is supporting our human diversity as well as our
personal and shared experiences.

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[03:27 / 25:00] How is that related to the Experience Economy, and I would like to ask you to share
thoughts on what it actually means?
Back in the late 1990s, Harvard Business Review, published an article titled ‘Welcome to the Experience
Economy’ which discussed the progression of economic value. It shows a chart that first points to
undifferentiated fungible commodities at the bottom of the scale, followed by actual tangible goods, which
are products that create greater value. Next-up is the delivery of value based services, which can be better
differentiated. But, at the very top of the chart, it shows the Experience Economy.
Today, everyone is using the Experience Economy’s ‘X’ acronyms, such as: CX for Customer Experience, EX for
the Employee Experience, and UX, the actual User Experience. XD, Experience Design has become a source of
innovation that creates new value.
Let’s also bring MX into the discussion, because that is the multi-experience: we are all using multiple mobile
and fixed devices, objects, applications and platforms, and digitally enhanced and immersive environments
with augmented, virtual and mixed realities… all of that combined becomes XR, Extended Reality. So,
addressing MX for omnichannels ensures a seamless and coherent brand experience across all of these
domains.
To make it more tangible, what is the Experience Economy’s business model in the real world?
The Experience Economy is here to stay jointly with another widely used term in the area of digital services:
the ‘X as a Service’ business model, where ‘X’ can be anything that we can apply software to.
Early on ‘as a Service’ was about introducing alternative online subscriptions for content, applications,
platforms and resources, which are also elastic, you pay as you use the service for what, otherwise, used to
require large up-front investments, a local installation, and in some cases it could only be provided at a
specific location you would have to go to. So, there are four defining principles for the ‘as a Service’
experience:

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1. User friendly ‘self-service’ at the front-stage
2. A ‘subscription model’, which can include a free trial or bartering data in exchange for the service
3. worry-free technology since maintenance, ‘serviceability’ is handled by the service provider at the
back stage
4. shared and scalable infrastructure and platforms and applications, which spreads and lowers overall
costs for everyone… that is the ‘cloud’ at the back end
Just to make it easier to remember, the four key words start with the letter ‘S’: self-service, subscription,
serviceability, and shared resources. Out of those four, self-service becomes the most obvious differentiator
because everything else becomes invisible on purpose by design.
In addition to the four S (self-service, subscription, serviceability and shared) we would need to add a fifth
one for cyber security, and a sixth for ‘smart contracts’ that are enabled by fintech. These are financial
technologies such as blockchain, which authenticate, secure and automate the execution and monetization of
agreements and transactions in a truly agile fashion.
Worldclass “as a Service” offerings are ‘customer first’ by prioritizing your experience. These best deploy
Human Centered Artificial Intelligence optimizing for ease of navigation and discovery, smarts providing ad-
hoc user assistance, proactive recommendations, and more intuitive and frictionless interactions and
customer care.
No wonder, peers at MIT have been pointing to a shift in R&D investment where about 50% of the budget
becomes directed to Human Centered technologies.

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[09:16 / 25:00] I would like to discuss how your work factors all of that, and your perspective as a
designer.
Design is both a product of our culture and culture shaping discipline. Everything that we use has been
designed. Our profession is about devising solutions and equipping products and services to deliver clear
benefits, and to provoke positive human affects as a result. Basically the job is about winning hearts and
minds, which takes empathy.
Excelling at Human Centered Design yields quality experiences that make a difference. From a business
perspective, well designed solutions are not only liked and sell, but sell faster and sell more of other related
offerings.
Different from conventional economic theory, in our design work we bring along ‘Behavioral Economics’
because it factors the neuroscience, psychological and sociological insights: all human factors behind the
decision making experience.
For instance, our understanding of quality is a function of our perception of value. Value is an evolving human
experience. So, a few thoughts come to mind:
• As a designer in the experience economy, my goal is to deliver quality products and services that
create meaningful value and delight.
• Being customer centric acknowledges that our customers are all human; so putting Human Centered
Design and Human Factors Engineering at the forefront is a no brainer.
• And ‘Designing to Value’ means putting people first. We then get to back-engineer, test and validate
technological solutions with creative confidence to derisk R&D investments in innovation.

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[11:40 / 25:00] Before our interview we were chatting a bit about QXbD. How is that different?
Well, QXbD, Quality eXperiences by Design, is a practice that encapsulates everything that we have discussed
so far. With QXbD, we progressively test and advance our work across six dimensions: there are three leading
indicators and three lagging ones.
The leading indicators informing our work are:
• Identifying legitimate problems, these are honest issues and challenges
• Crafting signature solutions, that are authentic… not gimmicky, not whimsical, not hype
• Devising beneficial outcomes that are genuine and win hearts and minds
The three lagging indicators, become success proof points:
• Early User Acceptance
• Accelerated Market Adoption
• Value Creation and Brand Equity Value
Great design addresses ‘moments of truth’ that evoke memorable reactions by invoking empathy. The best
design seeks emotional responses with products and services that become key to experiences that are
meaningful, valuable, pleasant and, best of all, delightful.
With QXbD we also exercise Design Foresight for three reasons:
• First to scout the possibilities ahead by actively exploring by experimenting.
• Second, design foresight is also critical to future proofing our work by back-engineering a ‘net present
design’ for the blueprints of what we should deliver first. Most big things start as smaller beginnings,
so progressive continuous improvement comes with the job.

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• The third reason is to make sure that a design is not rendered obsolete by the time things get to
market, and that it does not become a victim of success by failing to adapt and scale. This means that
we not only need to address today’s problems, but we also need to envision and tackle the ones that
will take place by the time the offering is out there.
There is no crystal ball. It is all hard work, mostly perspiration and some inspiration coming along as a result.
And, when in doubt, the guiding principle is in the name: to attain Quality eXperiences by Design.
[14:52 / 25:00] You have brought up Artificial Intelligence a few times already and your current work
focuses on Human Centered Artificial Intelligence. What is the difference?
Arthur C. Clarke said that ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic’ and AI evokes
that sort of feeling. If I had to put it in just two words, I would say that AI is basically smart automation. But I
don’t mean to over simplify.
My first point is that there is no magic. We digitize and work with all sorts of data, which needs to be
processed to deliver metadata, that is data of data, information and insightful analytics. The more capable
the model, and the more dynamic the environment, the more autonomous the behaviors and the decisions
to be made. That autonomous decisioning capability is what we call Artificial Intelligence.
What we really have today is ‘Narrow AI’ focusing on specific tasks and specialized jobs. It is not broad
general purpose. Most of it is actually a subset better known as ML, Machine Learning, with algorithms that
mine and cluster data to structure it. A fair amount of that is really about clever ‘brute force computing’ to
process extremely large data sets at mind boggling speed.
Nokia partnered with Wired Magazine back in 2015 on a program called ‘MakeTechHuman.’ Stephen
Hawking participated in those conversations and, in my view, what best captured people’s imagination was

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his message on the need for better focusing on ‘Beneficial Intelligence,’ rather than making Intelligence that
is Artificial.
HCAI, Human Centered Artificial Intelligence, is at the heart of ‘Beneficial Intelligence’ because Human
Centered Design solves problems that prioritize benefits and value for us humans:
• First, basically, HC AI is about coming up with systems that adapt to us, and that help us to take things
to the next level, so that we work smarter rather than just harder for no good reason.
• Second, this means studying, understanding and respecting what makes us human for us to behave
less like machines and to augment and expand our possibilities.
Approaching informatics drives us to study human intelligence as a reference by involving neuroscience,
psychology and social sciences in our work, as well as biomechanics and biometrics. Behavioral economics is
also part of our toolset as we discussed early on.
• Third, since HCAI makes us ponder what makes us human, we look into our existence and our
experiences to address diversity and inclusion, mitigating any digital divide and discrimination, and
lifting everyone in the process.
[18:41 / 25:00] So far, our discussion has addressed the Experience Economy, Experience Design and
Human Centered Artificial Intelligence. We have reached the back end of this session and I would like to ask
you to connect the dots by zeroing in on Emotion Technology.
Affective Computing is at the heart of Emotion Technology and is key to Human Centered Artificial
Intelligence. Experience Design takes advantage of Affective Computing’s sentiment analysis, empathy maps

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and experience and engagement analytics… over the user journey, which also inform and orient how Human
Centered AI should communicate and interact effectively with us, and the behavior of the interfaces.
When we study human intelligence, we seek to better understand not just logic and its cognitive qualities,
but also the ability to feel, the role of our sentiments and the quality of our emotions, because all of that
shapes our decisions and behaviors. Cognition and emotions are intertwined in what makes any of us
intelligent. We know that measuring our ability to reason with IQ tests alone did not work well enough. The
fact is that EI or EQ, Emotional Intelligence happens to intersect our faster intuitive thinking and our deep
thinking as well.
While emerging Affective Computing applications are working with conversational agents, the chatbots using
NLP, Natural Language Processing and Computer Vision… the greater ambition focuses on automated smart
mass personalization in education, health services, customer care and the entertainment industry to name a
few… and as a critical ability in the ‘as a Service’ model.
Some examples that come to mind are: multi-modal and multi-channel user interfaces that are adaptive,
proactive recommendation engines, personalized user assistance and generative design engines supporting
creative work; so, there are enterprise applications too.
There is one another thing, which is the notion of what is known as ‘superminds.’ I am bringing this up
because each individual should be empowered to make a difference, but it takes teamwork to deliver. We
also need to consider the fact that Human and Machines working together are consistently outcompeting
machines alone.
Superminds is about collaborative work and co-creation environments, which requires Team Macro-Cognition
and the group’s collective Emotional Intelligence at its best… this is needed for problem solving purposes,
advancing work in fluid and uncertain conditions, conflict resolution, and to come together to get the job
done.
So, that’s another good reason to invest in Human Centered AI.

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[22:22 / 25:00] My last question is… what would you say to anyone concerned about Artificial
Intelligence?
There are a number of challenges that cannot be ignored. Progress sometimes means that solving a given
problem happens to expose a number of hidden and even new issues… opening Pandora’s box in a matter of
speaking. We all can experience emotions ranging from uneasiness and distrust to anxiety.
We are in a technological society at point of no return. In my view, that is why the design of responsive and
responsible, auditable and accountable systems leads us to develop Human Centered Artificial Intelligence…
and that involves cognitive and emotional empathy. HC AI should also address safeguards for our
psychological safety and overall wellbeing. So, what HC AI does and how it behaves should be ‘observable
and explainable’ instead of becoming a cryptic box with an unintended artificial agenda.
The best way to predict an exciting and prosperous future is to invent it. All of the issues and challenges
happen to be very compelling reasons for us to lead the way with QXbD, so that we deliver Beneficial
Intelligence in everyone’s best interest.
Thanks José for today’s discussion and your insights on the experience economy and technology.
II Foro de la TechnologÍa Emocional