Foundations of AI Agents

This unit introduces learners to autonomous AI agents and their implications for individuals, households, workplaces, and society. Students will build conceptual literacy about intelligence, agency, safety, creativity, and economic impacts to prepare for applied UX design and technical development in later units.

Learning Objectives

• Analyze personal and household interactions with AI agents to identify user needs, affordances, limitations, and ethical concerns
• Demonstrate understanding of core concepts—intelligence, agency, safety, creativity, and technological convergence—by explaining how each shapes user experience outcomes
• Evaluate societal and economic implications of autonomous AI by comparing potential scenarios for labor, business models, and public welfare
• Apply foundational user-centered design and responsible innovation principles to propose a high-level, ethically informed AI agent use case for home or work contexts