Hello everyone,
My name is Antonina Burlachenko, Head of Quality & Regulatory Consulting at Star. I’m honored to be the guest editor for our special edition of Star Radar, celebrating this year’s International Women’s Day.

This year's theme, "Inspiring Inclusion," resonates deeply with me. It underscores the importance of recognizing experts for their knowledge and contributions without prefixing their gender. For me, true inclusion means placing experts on an equal playing field, where their insights and experiences are valued without bias or gender identification.

In line with this, we have curated an all-female led newsletter, from content to design. The goal isn’t about segregating talent but rather showcasing our female talent’s perspective and the expertise they bring to the table. 

The world is far from perfect and there are many gender inequality issues that we must address, and there are women in different parts of the world being silenced. In the workplace, I do believe that it’s incumbent upon all of us to foster an inclusive environment. Not only should we make space for diverse voices, we all need to play our part to create psychological safety and encourage women to speak up. By doing so, we allow subject experts to shine, enabling a culture where all talent can thrive. Inclusion isn’t a concept but a practice; it’s our collective responsibility to build workplaces and communities where everyone has the opportunity to excel.

It’s been such a pleasure working with my fellow contributors for this special edition of Star Radar. We hope you enjoy this read and Happy International Women’s Day.

Antonina Burlachenko,

Head of Quality &
Regulatory Consulting

Amidst evolving AI regulations, the foremost challenge is striking a balance between maintaining control over the quality of AI products entering the market and fostering ongoing innovation and progress with speed. Companies that are not prepared will fall behind their competitors once regulations are officially implemented. The key to navigating this landscape is proactive preparation to mitigate the initial impact and ‘shock’ of regulatory changes. Based on our experience helping businesses across different industries preparing for the advent of AI, here are our recommendations: 

1. Make the first step - strive for progress not perfection: Anyone who works with a management system knows that there is no such thing as perfection. Improvement is a continual process. Begin with small steps, concentrating on the most critical aspects of your business to establish control before proceeding to the next important area.
2. Leverage existing knowledge: Use established standards, guidelines, and expert insights to avoid reinventing the wheel. This approach not only saves time but also solidifies your credibility in the eyes of regulators and potential customers.
3. Learn from others: The landscape of AI regulations is ever-changing. Having a dedicated team or external partners to monitor these shifts and additional market trends and insights can provide significant competitive advantages.

As long as there is no artificial general intelligence with a level of intelligence equal to that of a human, there is no such thing as “UX for AI”. Currently, available artificial intelligence encompasses a broad spectrum of subfields and has been developed to focus on specific applications. Each requires its own consideration in terms of the most suitable user experience.

For example, the use of computer vision (subfield) in self-driving cars (application) presents a very different set of design challenges from the use of machine learning in stock market predictions. In this article, the discussion will focus on the UX for AI assistants application, enabled by natural language processing. 

The launch of Chat GPT has led many to contend that we are on the brink of a significant paradigm shift. Following command line interfaces (CLI) and graphical user interfaces (GUI), we have now approached the era of conversational interfaces (CUI), where we interact with computers as we would with humans. Bill Gates writes in his blog “Your main way of controlling a computer will no longer be pointing and clicking or tapping on menus and dialogue boxes.” This concept, while not new, is evolving with advancements in natural language processing, making text-based and voice-user interfaces (used in voice assistants such as Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri) capable of generating coherent and contextually relevant responses on any topic.

Q: The theme of this year’s International Women’s Day is ‘Inspiring Inclusion’. Tell us what inclusion means to you and how you interpret this theme in your design for this special newsletter edition?

To me, inclusion means embracing and celebrating a diversity of perspectives, experiences, and personalities that make up the beautiful and complex world we live in. It's about creating designs that are accessible and relevant to everyone, beyond the confines of gender, cultural backgrounds, and all the traditional ways society puts people into boxes. We need to integrate rich, diverse, and complex human experiences into design. 

When I was designing this special edition of Star Radar, I wanted to put my fellow female experts at Star at the forefront of our design and highlight their unique personalities and essence that make them who they are. 

I do want to add that I feel very fortunate to live in Germany, a fairly equal and equitable society. I’m acutely aware that’s not the reality for many women in other parts of the world. I hope that as we move forward, International Women's Day can evolve into a pure celebration of women's achievements and contributions worldwide, rather than a reminder of the disparities we still need to overcome.

When I was approached to share my stories for this year'sInternational Women's Day, I hesitated, wondering if anyone would find my journey—from a snowy town in northeast China to the boardrooms of global business interesting or inspiring. But as a mother, a business leader, and often the only Asian female in the boardroom, I realized the importance of sharing my experiences. If my story resonates with even a few, then sharing it is worth every effort.

From China to the global stage 

My journey began when I left my homeland in China for a semester abroad in the US. That experience opened my eyes to a world brimming with ideas and possibilities that I had never imagined. The curiosity and confidence I gained from studying abroad laid the foundation for my professional path.

Upon returning to China, I joined a global home appliance manufacturer Haier in its R&D department. That experience launched my career and life-long passion for brand building, product development, most importantly, working in cross-cultural environments. Having had the opportunity to work with brilliant minds around the world, I discovered first hand the incredible outcomes that arise from including diverse opinions in a project. 

One of the most valuable lessons I've learned is that life and success are far from linear. You can't predict what the future holds or what opportunities or challenges may arise. But say yes to new experiences, say yes to fear, say yes to the unknown, you will come out on the other side with perspectives, confidence and capabilities you wouldn’t have gained otherwise.