Critical Thinking in the Vibe Coding Era: An Interview with Amit Patel

In this interview with Amit Patel, founder and creative director of Experience Haus, a London-based design education and consultancy, we examine why critical thinking and the art of deconstruction still matter in a speed-obsessed, vibe-coding economy, how newcomers in tech can survive a brutal job market disrupted by AI, and what human accountability means in 2026 as companies deploy increasingly autonomous, agentic systems.

In addition to his work at Experience Haus, Amit has over two decades of design experience across healthcare, banking, and infrastructure, with clients including The Economist, London Business School, the University of Westminster, and the World Food Program. His work grounds design and technology in real-world context, ethics, and critical thinking, a striking counterweight to an economy and culture that rewards speed, prompting, and vibe coding while skipping the harder work of listening, learning, and deconstructing before we build.

I met Amit at DesignUp Conference in Bangalore, where he urged the audience to “stop copying San Francisco,” and design for the real frontlines: tier-2 cities, local vernacular, older generations, and rural communities. With so much erasure, violence, and unaccountability already marring this year, I invited Amit for a deeper conversation on strengthening critical thinking and relationship-building, essential skills for shaping technology, and, in this moment, an act of resistance.