Design today is often first encountered not by a person, but by a system. One that reads quickly, summarises ruthlessly, and decides what matters before a human ever shows up. AI has become an invisible layer between brands and people. It filters, interprets, and often speaks on our behalf. This changes the job of design in subtle ways. Designing for people still matters. But designing so that AI can read, interpret, and trust what we create is quickly becoming just as important.

The READ Framework

The READ framework offers a simple way to design for AI interpretation. 

• Readable: Work must be readable, clearly structured, logically ordered, and understandable without relying on tone or visual cues.
• Explicit:  It must be explicit, stating claims, intent, and meaning directly rather than leaving gaps for interpretation. 
• Anchored: It needs to be anchored in facts, clear positions, and consistent signals so it can be trusted across contexts.
• Decomposable:  It must also be decomposable, able to hold its meaning when extracted, summarised, or reused out of context. 

Together, these principles help ensure that what we design can be correctly understood by AI systems before it ever reaches a human. 

From attention metrics to AI interpretation

According to McKinsey reports, around 50 % of consumers already use AI-powered search to make buying decisions, and this figure is expected to grow rapidly, potentially influencing hundreds of billions of dollars in revenue by 2028. Relevance depends on clarity, structure, credibility, and how effectively AI can interpret and use your content. AI-powered tools like ChatGPT, Google AI Overviews, Gemini, Copilot, Perplexity, and others act not only as information retrievers but as decision guides often synthesising knowledge into single results or ranked recommendations without requiring a human to click through to a website.

Optimising Content for AI Search and Discovery

Bain research also shows that 80% of people now rely on AI-generated summaries for at least 40% of their searches.  Research shows AI summaries now appear on around 60% of search queries, causing traditional organic traffic to decline significantly as users get answers without clicking through. These trends confirm that visibility increasingly depends on AI interpretation, not just human clicks.

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How Bblewrap can make a difference: 

At Bblewrap, we recognise that design today must work across both human and machine interpretation. Our research-first approach helps brands understand how AI systems read, evaluate, and surface content across search, discovery, and decision-making platforms. By analysing how structure, clarity, and credibility influence AI interpretation, we help brands design communication systems that remain accurate, relevant, and trusted when mediated by technology.