I joined Miro in November 2024 to lead AI design direction for the platform.
In my first few weeks I wrote down and shared with the team a set of assumptions, goals and biases as a kind of pseudo-manifesto for how I thought we might proceed with AI in Miro.
About a year later, the team released a significant set of AI features that represented some amazing work. If I squint I can maybe see some of my original thinking in there, but of course it takes a village — and a lot changed in both the world of AI and Miro in the course of 2025.
All kudos for the stellar work that got launched go to Tilo Krueger, Roana Bilia, Mauricio Wolff, Sophia Omarji, Jai McKenzie, Shreya Bhardwaj, Ard Blok, Ahmed Genaidy, Ben Shih, Robert Kortenoeven, Andy Cullen, Feena O’Sullivan, Anna Gadomska, George Radu, Rune Schou, Kelly Dorsey, Maiko Senda and many more brilliant design, product and engineering colleagues at Miro.
The AI manifesto
What follows are the principles I set out in my first weeks — a provocation for the team about what AI in a multiplayer creative tool could mean, accompanied by some Veo3-generated visualisations.
Multiplayer / Multispecies
When building AI for Miro, always bear in mind the human-centred team nature of innovation and making complex project work. Multiplayer scenarios are always the start of how we consider AI processes, and the special sauce of how we are different to other AI tools.
Minds on the Map
The canvas is a distinct advantage for creating an innovation workspace — the visibility and context that can be given to human team members should extend to the AI processes that can be brought to bear on it. They should use all the information created by human team members on the canvas in their work.
Help both Backstage & On-Stage
Work moves fluidly from unstructured to structured modes, asynchronous and synchronous, solo and team work — and there are aspects of preparation and performance to all of these. AI processes should work fluidly across all of them.
AI is always Non-Destructive
All AI processes aim to preserve and prioritise work done by human teams.
AI gets a Pencil, Humans get a Pen
Anything created by an AI process has a distinct visual and experiential identity so that human team members can identify it quickly.
No Teleporting
Don’t teleport users to a conclusion. Where possible, expose the chain of thought that the AI process used so that users can understand how it arrived at the output, and edit or iterate on it.
AIs leave visible, actionable evidence
Where possible, expose the AI processes’ chain of thought on the board so that users can understand how it arrived at the output, and edit or iterate on it. Give hooks into this for integrations, and make sure context is well logged in versions and histories.
eBikes for the Mind
Humans always steer and control — but AI processes can accelerate and compress the distances travelled. They are mostly pedal-assistance rather than self-driving.
Help do the work of the work
What are the AI processes that can accelerate or automate the work around the work — taking notes, scheduling, follow-ups, organising, coordinating — so that the human teammates can get on with the things they do best.
Using Miro to use Miro
Eventually, AI processes in Miro extend in competence to instigate and initiate work in teams. This could have its roots in composable workflows and intelligent templates, but extend to assembling, convening and facilitating significant amounts of multiplayer/multispecies work on an individual’s behalf.
My Miro
What memory and context can I count on to bring to my work, that my agents or my team can use? How can I count on my agents not to start from scratch each time? Can I have projects I am working on with my agents over time? Are my agents mine? Can I bring my own AI, visualise and control other AI tools in Miro, or export the work of Miro agents to other tools, or take it with me when I move teams and jobs? Do my agents have resumes?
These principles were a starting point — a way to orient a large, talented team around what felt distinct about bringing AI to a multiplayer canvas rather than a single-user document. The real work was done by the people who turned provocations into shipped product.
Originally published on petafloptimism.com.