Autonomous agents will transform user experience by automating interactions, making traditional UI design obsolete, as users stop visiting websites in favor of solely interacting through their agent.
Love the forward thinking of this! I think there's a middle ground; rather than a future where everyone is only interacting with an ai agent, the "manual" aspect of interaction will still continue. We're visual creatures and interacting purely through language is slow and imprecise (this is coming from someone who's been designing convo ai for nearly a decade). There's likely to be a world, or at least a phase, where there's a new level of meta data that enables better AI traversal and usage underneath the existing human interaction layers we're already used to. Calling out CUA is a great example; it's a band-aid technology because structured meta data doesn't exist for the ai agent to use. When meta data does exists (e.g., HTML), it's so inconsistently structured it's essentially unusable. Overall, totally agree that we're quickly moving into an agentic ai world and there are going to be huge implications for UX and every profession. It's probably going to be a little less one-tech-to-rule-them-all and a little more messy.
I'm with you, and will add CUA is a toy. It's a bridge affording the masses the ability to watch their AI perform tasks and build confidence. Once trust is established users won't have any problem with their personal AI performing tasks without supervision. (i.e. Automated pre-scheduled bank payments) Using a UI versus only API is many times less efficient.
Things may be on the verge of a significant improvement in the meta data space. I just watched a demo by 'AI Jason' on YT using Anthropic's browser-to-MCP via Cursor. Useful for interacting with websites that may have poorly structured or incomplete metadata.
You've likely already used this given you profession, but I can see where is an additional step to enhancing AI within UI until it is no longer needed.
Interesting post Jacob. In the early days of the internet, there were concerns that libraries might become obsolete, but this has not happened. Since the 1990s, the use of public libraries in the United States has generally increased, despite the rise of the internet. Public libraries have adapted to the digital age, providing access to computers, the internet, e-books, and other digital resources. They have also expanded their role as community hubs offering programs, workshops, and educational services beyond traditional book lending.
Is there is similar path for UI UX development? IMHO I believe there are opportunities that will present themselves, unknown paths to richer experiences for the user that supersede (or leverage) the role agents provide.
i think this is spot on. The UI allowed someone to do tasks associated with a larger goal. The Agent will become the interface as more data becomes semantically-aligned (thanks accessibility efforts) so it can read legacy HTML (structured data?). People won’t need to struggle with an interface designed by a committee. Content will be chosen which supports user intent.
While UX as we know it will die, i suspect illustrators, graphic designer, photographers, even musicians will still find work as their output will become supporting assets an Agent might provide at customer decision points especially as organizations need to differentiate themselves in a sea of sameness.
I firmly agree that these autonomous agents will become prolific and start to define our online and offline experience - the end of UI though I don’t know. We still will need a way to consume the content that the agents provide - we love our screens and the experience (even if it’s not quite real) of community we get when sharing and commenting and reading. That UI can’t be wholly replicated by voice UIs. So not sure I agree 100% with you here “Once the transition to agents has been completed, websites may never see a human user again. This means that UI design, as traditionally conceived, becomes irrelevant. Look and feel? Bah, nobody will care whether it looks nice or ugly or how it feels to use your website since no (human) will be using it.” Wouldn’t UI design just need to move shift and adapt to support the outcome for all us humans of all the content our autonomous agents are giving us? Not a website of course but something we still would need to consume on a screen of some sort.
This is why UX is not going to last beyond 2026. With everyone having their own personal AIs, in the rare occasion one needs/wants a UI it will create a one-off perfectly design UI to meet our personal likes/dislikes/accessibility requirements, and do it instantly.
As Joe said, it is an interesting post. And UX must adjust to the new standards emerging from AI. However, I am concerned that the shift from Human-computer interaction will tilt more and more towards computer-computer interactions before reaching a human. We already see this in the financial sector, where trade systems interact without human intervention at the speed of light, where outcomes affect our societies. And the more computer middlemen you have, the less you know about the underlying systems, their complexity, and what good any such chain of events does, not only in terms of interaction and usability aspects but also cultural aspects. Of course, this is more crucial in wide-reaching systems. Still, I believe the role of UX must become as concerned about the anthropological and systemic elements of what we are designing as we are about interactions. What are your thoughts on this?
It will absolutely shift from UI to API. Requiring computers to use human UI is incredibly inefficient.
As I commented above, CUA is a toy. It's a bridge affording the masses the ability to watch their AI perform tasks and build confidence. Once trust is established users won't have any problem with their personal AI performing tasks without supervision.
Love the forward thinking of this! I think there's a middle ground; rather than a future where everyone is only interacting with an ai agent, the "manual" aspect of interaction will still continue. We're visual creatures and interacting purely through language is slow and imprecise (this is coming from someone who's been designing convo ai for nearly a decade). There's likely to be a world, or at least a phase, where there's a new level of meta data that enables better AI traversal and usage underneath the existing human interaction layers we're already used to. Calling out CUA is a great example; it's a band-aid technology because structured meta data doesn't exist for the ai agent to use. When meta data does exists (e.g., HTML), it's so inconsistently structured it's essentially unusable. Overall, totally agree that we're quickly moving into an agentic ai world and there are going to be huge implications for UX and every profession. It's probably going to be a little less one-tech-to-rule-them-all and a little more messy.
Hi Jason,
I'm with you, and will add CUA is a toy. It's a bridge affording the masses the ability to watch their AI perform tasks and build confidence. Once trust is established users won't have any problem with their personal AI performing tasks without supervision. (i.e. Automated pre-scheduled bank payments) Using a UI versus only API is many times less efficient.
Things may be on the verge of a significant improvement in the meta data space. I just watched a demo by 'AI Jason' on YT using Anthropic's browser-to-MCP via Cursor. Useful for interacting with websites that may have poorly structured or incomplete metadata.
You've likely already used this given you profession, but I can see where is an additional step to enhancing AI within UI until it is no longer needed.
Interesting post Jacob. In the early days of the internet, there were concerns that libraries might become obsolete, but this has not happened. Since the 1990s, the use of public libraries in the United States has generally increased, despite the rise of the internet. Public libraries have adapted to the digital age, providing access to computers, the internet, e-books, and other digital resources. They have also expanded their role as community hubs offering programs, workshops, and educational services beyond traditional book lending.
Is there is similar path for UI UX development? IMHO I believe there are opportunities that will present themselves, unknown paths to richer experiences for the user that supersede (or leverage) the role agents provide.
i think this is spot on. The UI allowed someone to do tasks associated with a larger goal. The Agent will become the interface as more data becomes semantically-aligned (thanks accessibility efforts) so it can read legacy HTML (structured data?). People won’t need to struggle with an interface designed by a committee. Content will be chosen which supports user intent.
While UX as we know it will die, i suspect illustrators, graphic designer, photographers, even musicians will still find work as their output will become supporting assets an Agent might provide at customer decision points especially as organizations need to differentiate themselves in a sea of sameness.
I firmly agree that these autonomous agents will become prolific and start to define our online and offline experience - the end of UI though I don’t know. We still will need a way to consume the content that the agents provide - we love our screens and the experience (even if it’s not quite real) of community we get when sharing and commenting and reading. That UI can’t be wholly replicated by voice UIs. So not sure I agree 100% with you here “Once the transition to agents has been completed, websites may never see a human user again. This means that UI design, as traditionally conceived, becomes irrelevant. Look and feel? Bah, nobody will care whether it looks nice or ugly or how it feels to use your website since no (human) will be using it.” Wouldn’t UI design just need to move shift and adapt to support the outcome for all us humans of all the content our autonomous agents are giving us? Not a website of course but something we still would need to consume on a screen of some sort.
I’m wondering what does this mean to the fundamental HCI, and what would the new heuristic look like, maybe 2-3 years from today.
YES! Now you are starting to see what is to come.
This is why UX is not going to last beyond 2026. With everyone having their own personal AIs, in the rare occasion one needs/wants a UI it will create a one-off perfectly design UI to meet our personal likes/dislikes/accessibility requirements, and do it instantly.
As Joe said, it is an interesting post. And UX must adjust to the new standards emerging from AI. However, I am concerned that the shift from Human-computer interaction will tilt more and more towards computer-computer interactions before reaching a human. We already see this in the financial sector, where trade systems interact without human intervention at the speed of light, where outcomes affect our societies. And the more computer middlemen you have, the less you know about the underlying systems, their complexity, and what good any such chain of events does, not only in terms of interaction and usability aspects but also cultural aspects. Of course, this is more crucial in wide-reaching systems. Still, I believe the role of UX must become as concerned about the anthropological and systemic elements of what we are designing as we are about interactions. What are your thoughts on this?
It will absolutely shift from UI to API. Requiring computers to use human UI is incredibly inefficient.
As I commented above, CUA is a toy. It's a bridge affording the masses the ability to watch their AI perform tasks and build confidence. Once trust is established users won't have any problem with their personal AI performing tasks without supervision.
UX won't be a thing after 2026.