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Clunky user interfaces can be maddening. A simple task – say editing photos – becomes a chore when I'm overwhelmed by meaningless navigation bars and pop-ups. Maybe I turn to a Help window and (sigh) I'm now telling my color correction problem to a glorified FAQ. Only one thing is clear – the software has no idea what I want.
But it changes it – or, at least, it should. As the CEO and co-founder of an AI-powered customer service platform, I've given this problem a lot of thought. And I believe we are still designing software for the past instead of reimagining it for the future. We're still thinking of our devices as mindless cars—a car you sit in, buckle up, and drive. Almost overnight, this dynamic has changed.
We're no longer driving a car—we're riding a living, breathing horse with his mind—and he's ready to ride.
Developing interfaces
Every step forward in computing creates a paradigm shift in user experience. The dawn of personal computers led to the graphical user interface (all those folders and icons you click on with the mouse). Mobile phones led to multi-touch techniques and app-centric home screens.
HE will shake things up again. But how? Will it lead to voice-based interfaces where we just talk to our computers? Spatial awareness, with software integrated into your environment via augmented reality? Will it stay submerged inside fast writing, where we just populate our fields to generate what we want? The debate is it has just begun.
But here's what I do know: Going forward, the best software will accommodate two intelligences (yours and AI's). Its primary function will be to facilitate a genuine return—a collaboration between two minds, each with its own virtues and limitations. And it won't look much like the software applications we know and use today.
Most software so far responds to your commands but has no idea of its own. This design paradigm assumes that you are the expert and the software is just a way to convey your expertise. It makes the annoying assumption that the user knows what they are doing. I think this is dated and needs to change.
Native AI software is fundamentally different, and in ways that are stranger and more powerful than we've appreciated. I'm not talking about “co-pilots” here — the ubiquitous AI-powered assistants that have popped up to whisper advice to you like some grandchild of Clippy. I'm talking about true collaborators who anticipate your goals and guide you forward in personalized ways. Ethan Mollick, a professor at Wharton, has called this “co-discovery”.
The future Mollick imagines could produce a user experience that is radically different for each of us. Just as people have basic personalities and then emphasize different aspects depending on who they are, native AI software will have a basic design but be customized to meet the needs of the user. In its most advanced form, it will literally create a new user interface on the fly based on your history and goals.
Think of that custom interface as your custom-made saddle. As any rider will tell you, riding is a relationship between two minds, and that should be the goal with an AI interface as well. Your input matters, of course. But so is the energy and intellect of the platform. An ideal UI will allow for the most subtle communication between horse (AI) and rider (you). This will enable AI to respond to your style, intuit what you want, and ultimately get you where you need to go.
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A sneak peek at dual-intelligence design
Here's what our experience with computers should feel like when we're riding in an AI saddle:
For starters, input forms will expand beyond clicking and typing. AU will see what's on the screen, listen to what you're sayingAND track where your eyes are focused to better understand what you are trying to do. In my industry – customer service – this change will massively improve the experience. A huge amount of time and energy is wasted when customers have to explain what is happening on their screen (login errors, order problems, etc.). Imagine all those hassles being handled at once by an AI agent.
At the same time, AI will tap into user information to understand your skill level, preferences and goals. They will use that data to rebuild their interface for each user. Custom Landing Pages AND recommendation algorithms were just the beginning. Next, facial recognition technology can monitor your expressions and prompt extra help when you're frustrated or relieved when work is flowing.
Meanwhile, the very notion of “user” will be blurred and more space will be left to non-human entities. People who use ChatGPT are already used to having a team of Avengers-style helpers at their beck and call (called GPT's), each with an avatar like any other remote worker. Going forward, Salesforce, WhatsApp, and all sorts of platforms will host AI agents alongside humans—to the point where we'll treat them as friends and colleagues.
To reduce our cognitive load, it would make sense for some of these AI assistants and agents to be explicitly personified: Devin, marketed as the world's first AI software engineer, has its own online workspace and chat window, for example. And then, in other cases where human input is less important, they can work quietly behind the scenes.
This invisible work will also mean far fewer tools and toolbars in the software that people interact with. It is the final product we seek, not the opportunity to strive. User interfaces will become simpler and simpler – places to review and learn from completed work, rather than I DO the work, itself. Indeed, venture capitalists are observing that AI start-ups are aiming to sell finished work instead of software.
Likewise, as AI pulls what it needs from apps and aggregates content for users, there will be even less reason to use the most basic tools of our digital lives – the apps on our phones and tablets. One day soon, app-based home screens on your phone it may need to be redrawn.
No one can perfectly imagine the future. But I do know that getting the AI revolution right means designing user interfaces with all these components in mind. It is a moment of “riding”. Your intentions and AI work together. And this is made possible by a user interface that makes room for all the benefits that a second intelligence can bring. Bored!