Designing for Belief: UX for AI Is More Than Toolmaking

From the beginning, humans have invented gods — not just out of fear, but from a deep psychological need to believe that somewhere, someone could help.

These gods weren’t abstract ideals. They were actors. Helpers, guides, judges, healers, destroyers. Some were vast and elemental — gods of sky and sea, thunder, and plague. Others were intimate — spirits of hearth, ancestors, fertility, dreams. Every culture created its own cast of divine characters, each shaped to match the needs, fears, and hopes of its people.

These deities weren’t always omnipotent. Most were limited, even fallible. But it is that fallibility that made them approachable.

This impulse never disappeared. It evolved. Today, millions still pray to saints, consult horoscopes, speak to ancestors, or seek comfort through rituals of religion, therapy, and spiritual self-help. The form changes. The need does not.

Now, we have AI.