Yumei Feng is a San Francisco–based multidisciplinary designer and digital artist whose work explores the intersection of artificial intelligence, healthcare, emotional wellbeing, and speculative storytelling. Her practice is driven by the belief that AI should do more than optimize productivity — it should expand access to care, emotional support, and human understanding. Drawing from both personal experiences and emerging technologies, Feng investigates how generative AI can become a deeply human-centered medium capable of supporting people through uncertainty, loneliness, and chronic everyday struggles that traditional systems often overlook.
Much of Feng’s perspective on AI emerged from her own experiences living with chronic digestive discomfort and recognizing how widespread yet socially invisible gastrointestinal conditions such as IBS can be. Through this experience, she became increasingly interested in how generative AI could help bridge gaps in long-term care, symptom understanding, and emotional companionship for chronic conditions that are often difficult to diagnose, monitor, or consistently treat.
Rather than viewing AI purely as automation, Feng sees generative AI as uniquely capable of synthesizing large amounts of medical knowledge, identifying behavioral and physiological patterns over time, and providing emotionally responsive interaction at scale. She believes one of AI’s greatest strengths lies in pattern recognition — uncovering correlations between symptoms, stress, emotions, sleep, diet, and daily habits that are often difficult for individuals or traditional healthcare systems to consistently track across extended periods. At the same time, she is interested in the role conversational AI can play in reducing feelings of isolation, uncertainty, and anxiety that frequently accompany chronic illness.
This philosophy became the foundation for Lumi, an AI companion designed for individuals experiencing chronic digestive discomforts and ongoing gastrointestinal symptoms. Rather than functioning solely as a symptom tracker, Lumi acts as a conversational support system that helps users reflect on physical symptoms, emotional states, dietary habits, stress levels, sleep patterns, and behavioral trends over time. By combining generative AI, conversational memory, empathetic interaction design, and AI-driven pattern analysis, the project explores how intelligent systems can help users better understand their own bodies while making healthcare experiences feel more accessible, supportive, and emotionally aware.
Feng’s work also reflects her broader belief that generative AI has the potential to democratize access to specialized medical knowledge that was previously difficult, expensive, or intimidating for many individuals to navigate independently. Through thoughtfully designed AI systems, she explores how complex healthcare information can become more conversational, approachable, and personalized for everyday users — particularly underserved populations who may not always receive adequate long-term support within traditional healthcare infrastructures.
A recurring theme throughout Feng’s practice is designing for the unseen minority — individuals whose experiences are frequently underserved by both traditional institutions and emerging technologies. One of her notable healthcare-focused projects, EasyMed, was created to support elderly users managing complex medication routines and multi-drug use. The AI-assisted platform utilizes machine learning and large-scale medical interaction databases to identify potential drug–drug and drug–food interactions while incorporating accessibility-focused interaction patterns such as larger typography, simplified interfaces, and voice-assisted experiences tailored for elderly populations.
EasyMed was recently exhibited at the 2025/2026 “GENERATIVE METAMORPHOSIS” 3rd Florence Annual International Art Exhibition in Florence, Italy, an international exhibition centered on emerging digital practices, generative systems, transformation, and the evolving relationship between humans and technology. GENERATIVE METAMORPHOSIS Florence Exhibition
Feng’s broader work was also featured during NYCxDESIGN 2026, one of the largest and most internationally recognized design festivals in the United States, drawing global audiences across design, technology, art, and innovation. NYCxDESIGN International Spotlights Her contributions across AI, healthcare innovation, interaction design, and digital storytelling have earned her more than 10 international design awards, including the Red Dot Design Award, UX Design Award, Vega Digital Awards, MUSE Design Awards, TITAN Awards, London Design Awards, and the A’ Design Award & Competition, among others.
Through both healthcare innovation and immersive digital storytelling, Feng represents an emerging generation of designers using AI not simply as a technical tool, but as a medium for empathy, accessibility, companionship, and new forms of human connection in increasingly AI-mediated futures.
