I'm not a fan of predicting the future. Time has shown us that when we talk about technology, most of the promised "next big things", have failed or are stuck in a nowhere place.
These innovations are often touted as game-changers, with gurus sparking FOMO by claiming “you’ll lose your job” or “you’ll be left behind” if you don’t adapt. This hype is effective in attracting users and investors, and we’re seeing it happen again with artificial intelligence (AI).
However, AI seems to be different—while there is certainly a lot of marketing and hype around it, AI also has aspects that appear genuinely transformative. One of these is the way we interact with digital interfaces.
The traditional interface
Over the last two decades, researchers, digital product designers, and developers, along with emerging technologies, have established a concrete framework for how interfaces function and look.
Call-to-actions, menus, dropdowns, images, scrolling, windows, and tabs are part of a vast collection of design patterns. These elements are used repeatedly because of their efficiency, familiarity, and popularity. They’ve become so ingrained that it’s hard to imagine software, websites, or applications without them. Can you picture a website without forms, images, and buttons?
These patterns have stood the test of time, becoming essential for enabling human-computer interactions and digital product design. They define how applications, websites, and software dictate organizational operations and customer interactions.
But in the next five to ten years, these interfaces—and the entire user experience—might change drastically.
But in the next five to ten years, these interfaces—and the entire user experience—might change drastically.
The AI-driven interface
ChatGPT or Gemini, to name a few, the latest disruptors, are controlled through a different interaction model.
Instead of navigating through menus and screens, users simply give commands (prompts), triggering a conversational response. This model, resembling human interaction, is likely a key factor in their rapid success.
This interaction model has many advantages, making it easy to envision it as the dominant form of human-computer interaction in the coming decade: simplicity, accuracy, precision, speed, and proactivity. Even more appealing, it could offer a more focused experience, free from the distractions that currently plague the Internet.
It could offer a more focused experience, free from the distractions that currently plague the Internet.
These AI-driven interfaces respond to simple prompts, provide the requested information, or execute a task without the need for validations, tabs, banners, cookies, CAPTCHAs, logins, notifications, or menus. It’s a cleaner, more efficient, and more productive way to work and interact—a potential new standard that organizations may be compelled to adopt for both employees and users on their digital products.
For instance, banks might soon enable customers to complete transactions with simple commands, such as “Pay this invoice to…” or “Ensure the internet bill is paid,” without filling out forms or navigating through multiple screens.
Executives might be able to open accounts or complete mortgage applications without the hassle of dealing with multiple systems, screens, software, and validations, all in a fraction of the time.
Running operations could become easier and faster.
This shift could render many of today’s digital websites, apps, and design systems obsolete or at least less critical, potentially consolidating multiple functions into a single interface that serves both customers and employees.
Will marketing websites still be necessary? Will we still need fragmented app experiences on our phones? Or will users simply ask their iPhones to handle a task with their bank, and that’s it?
Organizations will likely need a significant transformation, at least on the front end of their digital products and channels, akin to the changes we’ve seen over the past fifteen years, to face this uncertain yet-to-be-invented digital future.
Organizations will likely need a significant transformation, at least on the front end of their digital products and channels, akin to the changes we’ve seen over the past fifteen years
Are Companies Ready for This Change?
In short, no. Many companies still struggle to provide quality digital products and services that deliver the expected business outcomes and meet customers’ demands for efficiency and immediacy. This leaves them at a competitive disadvantage, trailing behind companies that have already addressed these challenges.
Despite decades of talk about digital transformation, some organizations are still only halfway through the process.
But rather than viewing this impending shift in how the world interacts with their business as a new stressor, companies should see it as an opportunity. We’ve learned over the years that the way to lead is by designing experiences backward, starting from the needs and expectations of customers and employees.
In my opinion, this could be a perfect moment for organizations to give their researchers and designers the time and space to envision how these new interfaces and User Experience should be crafted.
This could be a perfect moment for organizations to give their researchers and designers the time and space to envision how these new interfaces and User Experience should be crafted.
How will an AI-led channel function within your company? How will it integrate with your existing channels? Which current channels will become obsolete? What new devices and contexts will users adopt?
In this new opportunity, companies should learn from the past and start asking themselves how to intentionally design these new interactions in their digital products, services, and channels, rather than building technology and then learning from mistakes.
Research, Digital Product or experience design, and Service Design in collaboration with tech areas must take the lead in building the experience that will connect, engage, and converse with customers for the next ten years.
In the past, companies adopted technologies and software without much thought to the experience. The design was an afterthought, first as a decorative element and later as a means to patch what wasn’t working properly. Many companies that understood the importance of researching and designing first for the users ended up leading the market.
And many others will learn the hard way that in the next years, customers choose brands based on the relationship between brand, value, and experience—more so than on technology, price, or benefits. I believe organizations and their tech teams still have time to think about this.
As I said, I’m not a fan of predicting the future, I might be wrong of course. But it seems that a new change or digital transformation is coming. And once again, user experience and design will be key.
Aitor González, founder at bettter.
Note: My posts are just the result of my own experience, life moments, and opinions. Not everything here will work for everyone. Feel free to make them yours if they work for you, and ignore them if not.
