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# The age of agency: When products start to think and act


- **Event:** World Congress 2026 Europe - Virtual Stage

## Recording

[Watch recording](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/videos/1925-the-age-of-agency-when-products-start-to-think-and-act)

## Description

The truth about AI products: Most ‘AI features’ are just glorified search bars. They wait for you to type, wait for you to click and wait for you to fix their mistakes. That era is over.

We are moving from passive software to agentic products. These systems don't just assist. They reason, decide and act. They don't wait for instructions. They chase goals.

But if you design an agent like a traditional app, you will fail. You’ll build something chaotic, opaque and untrustworthy.

What this talk is about: This isn’t a theoretical deep dive into LLM architecture. It is a practical session for the people actually building the future.

We will break down the shift from user-driven to goal-driven systems. You will learn why trust and control are your new design primitives and how to coordinate tools without losing the human in the loop.

## Speaker

### [Madalena Costa](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/@madalena-costa)

Senior product designer - AI experience design & agentic UX | I help product teams build AI systems users trust and keep using | Human x Intelligent | Speaker & workshop facilitator


## Related talks at this congress

- [Designing the intelligence layer: The future of products beyond interfaces](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe-virtual-stage/sessions/1527-designing-the) — Madalena Costa
- [MAD About Software Design - When AI Architects Argue](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe-virtual-stage/sessions/1569-mad-about-software) — Lior Schejter
- [AI Agents & Agentic AI](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe-virtual-stage/sessions/1481-ai-agents-agentic-ai) — Xavier Sala Presas
- [Same Words, Different Worlds: Who's in Control?](https://www.wearedevelopers.com/events/world-congress-2026-europe-virtual-stage/sessions/1594-same-words-different) — Christina Rohrmoser, Stefan Wöhrer