The AXD Manifesto
A founding declaration of Agentic Experience Design. What AXD is, what it requires, and what it must not become. The definitive statement on agentic design principles.
Enter
A New Design Discipline · Est. September 2024 · United Kingdom
Agentic Experience Design for the Age of Autonomous AI
Agentic Experience Design is the discipline for a world in which AI no longer waits for instructions but acts on behalf of people. It addresses the design of trust, delegation, observability, intervention, and recovery across autonomous systems. At the Agentic Commerce Institute, Tony Wood explores how AXD reshapes commerce, customer experience, and the future relationship between humans and machines.
Defining the Discipline
Defining the Discipline
Agentic Experience Design (AXD) is the first discipline built for a world where machines act without being told to. Where UX governs what appears on screen, AXD governs what happens when the screen is closed - the outcomes, the authority boundaries, the trust that accumulates or erodes between a person and the agent acting in their name.
AXD is not UX for AI. It is not conversational UX, not prompt engineering, and not AI ethics. It is a parallel discipline that addresses the design challenges created by agentic AI - systems that anticipate, orchestrate, and operate in the world while the human is absent. From machine customers that transact on your behalf to autonomous agents that manage complex workflows, Agentic Experience Design or AXD provides the design frameworks for this new reality.
The AXD Institute, established by Tony Wood in the United Kingdom, is where this discipline takes shape - through the AXD Manifesto, a growing canonical vocabulary, and practice frameworks that give agentic design its rigour and structure.
As an agentic design discipline, AXD establishes the theoretical foundations, professional vocabulary, and practice standards that distinguish designed human-agent relationships from ad-hoc implementations. The discipline draws on trust theory, delegation theory, and systems design to create a rigorous basis for designing autonomous systems that operate with human authority. This is what makes AXD a discipline rather than a methodology - it defines not just how to design, but what design means when the user is absent and the agent acts alone.
The Founding Claim
For thirty years, designers shaped the experience. We built the flows, mapped journeys, and crafted the affordances through which human intention flowed into action. We became very good at designing for systems that wait. We are now designing for systems that act.
- From the AXD Manifesto, Tony Wood, September 2024
Four Doors
One discipline, four ways in
Whether you lead an organisation, design products, research agentic AI, or build teams - there is a door for you into the world of agentic experience design.
Five Principles
Five Principles That Define the Field
I
Agency Requires Intentional Delegation
Every agentic AI system begins with an act of delegation - a human granting permission for autonomous action. AXD designers architect this delegation: its scope, duration, and mechanisms for revocation.
II
Trust is the Primary Material
Where UX works in attention and affordance, agentic design works in trust. Trust in autonomous agents is calibrated, contextual, and fragile - and it can be designed.
III
Absence is the Primary Use State
The most consequential agentic AI experiences happen when no one is watching. Machine customers transact, agents decide, systems operate - all while the human is absent.
IV
Relationships Have Temporality
Agentic experiences are not transactions - they are relationships that accumulate history and demonstrate character. The hundredth interaction matters more than the first.
V
Outcomes Replace Outputs
When the path is chosen by the agent, the designer specifies the destination, not the journey. Outcome specification is the primary design artifact of AXD.
Strategic Framework
Is your business ready for the agentic economy?
The Four Pillars of AXD Readiness provide a strategic framework for businesses preparing for the transition from human-navigated commerce to agent-mediated commerce.
AXD Readiness Framework · NewThe Four Pillars of
Explore the Framework
The Four Pillars of
AXD Readiness
Signal Clarity. Reputation via Reliability. Intent Translation. Engagement Architecture. Four capabilities that determine whether autonomous agents can find, trust, match, and transact with your business.
Signal Clarity
Reputation via Reliability
Intent Translation
Engagement Architecture
The Observatory
Latest essay on agentic AI
Sixty-two long-form essays tracing the emergence of Agentic Experience Design - from the founding theoretical work on trust architecture and delegation design, through the architectural essays on absent-state design and human-agent interaction, to the industry analyses of Stripe, Mastercard, Visa, and Google protocols. The research record of a discipline being built in real time.
Issue 054 · Protocol Analysis · 28 min read
The Machine Payments Protocol
Stripe, Tempo, Visa, and the Protocol Proliferation Problem in Agentic Commerce. On March 18, 2026, Stripe and Tempo published the Machine Payments Protocol - an open standard for machine-to-machine payments over HTTP. The same day, Visa released a card-native specification. The AXD Institute analyses what MPP solves, what it leaves undesigned, and why protocol proliferation is the defining infrastructure challenge of agentic commerce.
Read the latest essay
AXD Academy
Founding Cohort · Limited to 50 PlacesThe discipline is defined.
The discipline is defined.
Now learn to practise it.
The AXD Academy is the world's first structured learning programme for Agentic Experience Design. Five role-specific pathways built on 67 Observatory essays, 64 vocabulary terms, and 12 practice frameworks. Take theory and apply the practice to build successful agentic experiences.
5
Role-Specific Pathways
Designers, Product, Commerce, Technology, Strategy
50
Founding Cohort Places
Premium programme, selective admission
12
Practice Frameworks
From theory to applied practice
Questions & Answers
Understanding agentic commerce design
Key questions about Agentic Experience Design, agentic commerce, agentic AI, agentic shopping, trust architecture, delegation design, and human agent interaction.
The Founder
Tony Wood
Emerging Technologies and Innovation Consultant and Agentic AI Product Specialist at the UK's leading retail bank. Founder of the Agentic Experience Design Institute. A leading voice in agentic commerce, agentic AI, agentic shopping, and human agent interaction design in the UK.
Tony Wood AI thought leadership spans decades at the intersection of design, technology, and financial services. The AXD Institute represents his founding claim that the design of human-agent relationships requires a new discipline - one built on trust architecture, delegation design, and outcome specification. His work on agentic experience design and agentic commerce is shaping how organisations approach agentic shopping, human agent interaction, and the design of autonomous agents. Tony Wood AXD represents the convergence of practitioner expertise and academic rigour - establishing AXD as the definitive framework for designing trust-governed human-agent relationships in the age of autonomous AI.
Manchester · United Kingdom
Explore the Institute
Definitions
The AXD Glossary
13 canonical definitions of AXD
Commerce
Agentic Commerce
The commercial frontier of autonomous AI
Language
The AXD Vocabulary
64 canonical terms defining the discipline
Frameworks
The AXD Practice
12 frameworks for implementing agentic design
News
Agentic Commerce News
Latest developments in agentic commerce
Consulting
Tony Wood - AXD Consultant
Founder of the AXD Institute