Vancouver AI Meetup: Where Humans Go, Where AI Goes

On Wednesday, November 25, 2026, Vancouver AI is back under the dome at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre. This month we hand the stage to a designer who has spent fifteen years deciding where people belong in a system, and where the machines do. Where humans go, where AI goes Most AI conversations start with the model. This one starts with judgement. Zoë Zaslow has spent fifteen years in product design, including design problems that were literally life and death. AI and natural language processing showed up in some of that work. They helped. They were never enough on their own. "The thing you need is judgement. Human judgement." That's Zoë's whole argument, and it's harder to practise than it sounds. AI doesn't solve the problem. It enables solutions. The real work is figuring out where human judgement has to sit, so you know where to put people and where to put AI. Zoë Zaslow. Photo: Michelle Diamond. The talk, in two parts Part one, 25 minutes. Fifteen years of design practice boiled down to four takeaways. Design process and systems thinking for people who build products but were never taught design thinking. Real cases, plain language, no jargon test at the door. Part two, 20 minutes. One project, start to finish. Where the people went, where the machines went, and why. Nobody gets scolded for shipping fast. Zoë's approach is gentle and Socratic: lead the room to the water and let it drink. Bring these questions Where does human judgement belong in the thing you're building, and where is it missing right now? When has AI actually earned its place in your work, and when did it fall short on its own? How do you design for a decision you can't afford to get wrong? You'll leave with four takeaways you can use on Monday, and a clearer way to decide what a person should own and what a model can carry. The Lineup Zoë Zaslow: Design strategist Fifteen years of product design, some of it on problems where a bad call could cost a life. Zoë works where design process m