Short post- wanted to get my thoughts out here in the open!
Agents are awesome. There are times where I prefer using one over digging into a classic UI. But, that isn’t always the case.
Complex, monotonous, boring work with a complex, disfunctional UI is worth the transition to simply spinning up an agent, and having it do the button clicking for you.
UIs are here to stay, agents are only going to improve existing workflows. The less I have to manage tasks with Jira, the more I actually want to use their software for the systems they already have in place.
The question we have to be asking ourselves now is “What needs to be offloaded to an agent workflow, and what needs to stay a UI?”.
Does it make more sense to allow users to see all of this? Or would it actually be better to remove the UI entirely, showing something simple like:
Helio Survey
Name: Let's run an assessment
Audience: Marketers
Intro: Welcome to our test! We'll use the results to improve the design of our site.
Question 1 (Multiple Choice): Which one is your favorite...
Question 2 (Free response): What did you think...
Outro: Thank you for taking our test! You rock!
My guess is that dynamic text actually becomes more useful, because you can focus on the elements that matter.
I think that a fleshed out UI is still necessary to show users their options. Especially in the case of Helio’s test create page, there are a lot of minute pieces of functionality that we’ve tried to show in some way (follow-up questions, branching logic, previewing questions, etc.). I would be doubtful if someone could surface those just by interfacing with an AI bot.
AI is good at taking simple inputs and producing robust outputs that show you the possibilities, but when the process involves a complex input like our Helio create page, then it seems like it would take some back & forth work with the AI to uncover what you can do with that complex input.
Probably the most important piece. Without knowing what you’re doing (not knowing what options are even available), it’s still super hard to write tests.
It’s a similar question to what consumers want automated without talking to a human. There are many cases where companies get this wrong. Things like checking order status or changing an appointment are examples where talking to a person is less desirable.
I guess this comes down to how much people want to think, decide, and be responsible.
