Designing AI You Can Trust & the Future of Human-Centered Healthcare (ft. Peter Skillman, Philips' global head of design)

Healthcare is entering its most consequential design moment in decades.

As AI moves from the background into the core of clinical decision-making, diagnostics, and patient experience, the real question isn’t what AI can do—it’s whether people can trust it.

This week on FUTUREPROOF., I’m joined by Peter Skillman, Global Head of Design at Philips, and one of the few leaders shaping what responsible, human-centered AI looks like in healthcare at scale.

Peter has spent three decades designing products and systems at the intersection of hardware, software, and services—across Palm, Nokia, Microsoft, AWS, and now Philips. Today, he’s helping reimagine healthcare not as a hierarchy of authority, but as an experience built around patients, clinicians, and trust.

We talk about:

• Why AI in healthcare must be designed with people, not just for them
• What happens when teenagers—future patients and clinicians—help design care systems
• How healthcare design is shifting from “what looks impressive” to “what feels humane”
• Why speed, clarity, and emotional context now matter as much as clinical accuracy
• The long timelines of healthcare innovation—and why today’s design choices shape the next decade
• What it really means to make AI visible, explainable, and trustworthy in life-and-death environments

This conversation isn’t about futuristic demos or abstract ethics.
 It’s about how design decisions today will determine whether AI improves healthcare—or quietly erodes trust in it.