A new experiment from DesignMap that reimagines scenario planning with the help of AI—faster, leaner, and just the beginning.
AI has sparked a wave of change across nearly every industry—and design is no exception. At DesignMap, we’ve been exploring how this shift might reshape not just our tools, but the very way we deliver value through strategic design.
That journey led to the creation of FutureCast, an experiment in applying AI to one of our most trusted practices: scenario planning.
Scenario planning is a powerful tool for building organizational foresight. But it’s often underutilized due to high costs and long timelines. FutureCast aims to change that by offering an AI-assisted experience that lowers the barrier to entry—giving more teams access to the benefits of strategic foresight.
The process is simple: answer a set of questions about your organization, and FutureCast uses AI to generate a set of strategic scenarios. These aren't predictions; they're provocations—meant to spark conversation and help teams think more adaptively about the future.
FutureCast isn’t a replacement for in-depth workshops or expert facilitation. It’s a lightweight tool designed to:
It’s also transparent about its limits. Unlike our client-facing engagements, FutureCast outputs are not human-reviewed. That’s why we treat them as conversation starters—not definitive strategies.
FutureCast was born out of experimentation, driven by curiosity more than code. It was assembled using a mix of existing tools, paired with AI to bridge the technical gaps and bring the concept to life.
Though it’s a scrappy first version, the results have already expanded our thinking. It’s helped reimagine what design consulting might look like in an AI-augmented future—and what role designers play within it.
AI generated the initial content, but our designer Vivian Lee shaped it into something meaningful. The future of design isn’t AI or human—it’s both: AI accelerates, and humans elevate.
This first version of FutureCast is only a prototype. If there’s interest, we’ll invest in making it more interactive, more collaborative, and more integrated into real team workflows.
But more than anything, we hope it opens up a conversation about how AI might help design go further—without losing what makes it great.
We’d love your feedback—especially from design leaders who are wrestling with similar questions. How are you using AI in your practice? Where do you draw the line between helpful acceleration and harmful shortcutting?
After all, the future isn't something that simply happens to us—it’s something we design together.