Designing Technology with Grace with Lisanne Buik
What becomes possible when we design technology not just with intelligence, but with integrity, embodiment, and grace?
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This week on Voices of Emergence, we are joined by Lisanne Buik – futurist, AI ethics thought leader, and visionary behind Gracious AI, a design philosophy that reimagines technology in service of humanity and the Earth.
Lisanne’s journey began in the world of tech entrepreneurship. At 22 she co-founded a startup - an “Airbnb for local, sustainable food experiences” - and quickly entered the world of accelerators, investors, and scale. Outwardly successful, inwardly she felt depleted, hollow, and disconnected from her body and values. Leaving that path set her on a deep spiritual journey, where she received a vision of “Grace” - a vortex of light realigning what had fallen out of tune back to source. From that moment she began developing Gracious AI as a philosophy and practice of aligning technology with regenerative values, ethics, and embodied presence.
Together, we explore:
Emergence as relational intelligence – not fighting old systems, but allowing new ones to arise through connection and collaboration.
From control to grace – shifting our relationship with AI from extraction and domination to partnership, ethics, and embodied leadership.
Masculine and feminine energies in technology – how healthy direction, vision, and agency (masculine) meet embodiment, cycles, and community (feminine) to shape the future.
Archetypes for the future – fungi, bacteria, pollinators, spiders, algae, birds, cations, and water as teachers of decentralised and regenerative intelligence.
Ethics, agency, and practice – why AI will not “wake up,” but humans must, through daily choices, intentional design, and values-led leadership.
Integration and embodiment – why AI is not a saviour: it can support reflection and purpose, but it must always be grounded in human contact, community, and somatic practice.
Decentralised AI – the emerging shift towards open-source, local, and decentralised models that keep data close to the user and align with regenerative principles.
Lisanne reminds us:
“AI is not a thing in itself. It is our partner. The grace we weave into this relationship will determine how gracious our future becomes. The real question is not if AI will wake up, but if humans will.”
She speaks about the stories we tell shaping the futures we inhabit:
“We don’t need another individual hero. We need collaborative intelligence as our archetype - the fungi, the pollinators, the resonance of cations, the flow of water. Nature shows us how decentralised intelligence actually works.”
And she points us back to practice:
“It’s not about whether AI becomes conscious. It’s about our daily commitment - how we embody values, how we make decisions, how we use these tools. That’s what determines if the future will be gracious.”
Why this conversation matters
As AI seeps into every layer of society, the temptation to outsource agency is growing. Algorithms flatter us, addict us, and mirror our shadows. At the same time, they hold the potential to accelerate regenerative solutions, decentralise power, and unlock deeper spiritual evolution. Lisanne invites us into a different story - one where grace, ethics, and embodiment shape the tools we build and the futures we inhabit.
🎧 Listen & Subscribe
🎧 Listen to Episode 11: Designing Technology with Grace with Lisanne Buik, on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and YouTube.
🌿 Lisanne Buik on LinkedIn and Instagram.
🌿 Lisanne’s website: https://lisannebuik.com
Voices of Emergence, co-hosted by Alex de Carvalho and Rudy de Waele, is a space for deep dialogue - where personal stories, inner work, and systemic transformation converge. We speak with both well-known and emerging voices to illuminate the often unseen or unspoken aspects of change-making. It’s a sensing field, a collective remembering, and a gentle yet potent invitation to align with life in more truthful and soulful ways.
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