The Humans Behind the AI: Alena Kirdina

1. Hi, Alena. Tell us about yourself! What was your path to joining Rasa?

I’ve been a product designer for over 10 years, specializing in complex digital tools—from wearable interfaces to enterprise e-commerce platforms. I’ve always been drawn to the future—new technologies, innovations, and the way they change how we work and communicate.

Around 2021, when GPT-3 started making waves, I had this “aha” moment: this was the future. The idea that you could achieve so much just by writing a prompt felt like a game-changer. That’s when I started exploring conversational design more deeply. Eventually, this passion led me to Rasa, where I didn’t just get to experiment with AI tools others had built—I got to design the framework for creating truly effective Conversational AI assistants myself.

2. Take us through a typical day on your role. What types of projects do you work on?

My team works on Rasa Studio, a no-code tool that lets people build conversational AI assistants through a simple, visual diagram interface. I see Studio as a bridge—making advanced conversational AI accessible to people who aren’t engineers, so they can create powerful AI assistants without writing a single line of code.
A typical day starts with catching up—both on what’s happening in the AI space and what’s going on at Rasa. We need to stay on top of market shifts and customer needs because things evolve fast.

Then, it’s a mix of:

• Researching new features or improvements—figuring out what will make a real impact.
• Collaborating with teams on implementation, gathering feedback, and iterating.
• Writing product documentation.
• Helping in shaping product strategy, so we focus on the right things.

No two days are the same, but that’s what keeps it interesting!

3. What's an important problem you're solving at Rasa?

Helping people build conversational AI that feels natural and human-like—while keeping full control over the conversation so it aligns with their business needs.
And as a designer, my job is to make this process as simple and intuitive as possible. When everything can be done through prompting, good UX becomes a competitive advantage. If building a great assistant is effortless, more businesses will embrace AI capabilities.

4. How would you describe Rasa in three words?

Passionate, diverse, innovative.

5. What’s the “wow” factor of Studio for you? And of your journey at Rasa?

The sheer speed at which you can go from zero to a fully trained assistant that you can talk to! With Studio, you can create conversational flows in minutes, train it instantly, and start chatting with your assistant—where it not only follows your predefined paths but also rephrases responses naturally and handles unexpected turns right out of the box.
As for my journey, the “wow” factor has been the level of impact—getting to design a tool that makes complex AI technology so much more accessible.

6. What’s one thing you wish more users knew about Rasa’s capabilities?

The way Rasa handles unexpected conversation shifts—like when a user suddenly changes the topic or asks something outside the original scope. For example, imagine someone’s in the middle of booking a flight and suddenly asks, “Btw, which local food in Paris can you recommend?” Rasa can smoothly switch from booking mode to giving food recommendations—and then return to where it left off. Or, if a user is ordering food and abruptly asks, “Can I change my delivery address?” Rasa just handles it out of the box, you don’t have to build any custom logic for it!

7. What’s a feature or innovation you’re particularly excited about in Rasa’s future

I’m really excited about advanced voice capabilities Rasa’s currently working on. Before, brands focused on tone of voice in writing, but now, they’re also able to define their actual voice—accent, rhythm, personality—making AI assistants even more lifelike.
Another big one is personalization—creating user profiles and preferences to tailor conversations in a way that feels more natural and relevant to them.

8. How do you collaborate with other teams at Rasa?

As designers, our job is to understand the industry and users deeply. We work closely with engineers, customer success, product managers, and marketing to ensure we’re building the right things, in the right way, with a great user experience.
Since we’re a distributed international team, that means lots of Zoom calls and writing a ton of documentation to keep async collaboration smooth. One thing I love about Rasa is how many domain experts we have. Every collaboration is a chance to learn something new.

9. What’s the most interesting thing you’ve learned lately?

That octopuses edit their own genes to adapt to temperature changes, something almost no other animals do. They’re basically genetic hackers, and it makes me think that if we ever find aliens, they might look like octopuses.

10. What’s the best career advice you’ve received?

The key to doing great work is understanding yourself. Build your career around things you genuinely believe in and care about—and you’ll be unstoppable.

Thanks, Alena!

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