For the last forty years, the entire trajectory of interaction design has been a movement away from the command line and toward direct manipulation. We moved from typing instructions to pointing, clicking, dragging, and seeing the results immediately. We built interfaces that showed us what was possible rather than demanding we memorise a syntax.
For decades in SAAS, products reduced ambiguity. Users supplied constrained inputs, and the system handled the output. It's never been Minority Report cinematic, but it was predictable. By providing predictable environments for manipulating data, users learned by moving things, adjusting variables - and the outcome emerged through interaction.
I think it's very, very early days in this new wave of AI, particularly on the user interface interaction side of things. The technology developed very quickly, but it takes human time to figure out the right interaction patterns.
As I'm stumbling around the pickup zone with my phone flashlight, squinting at license plates, I accidentally tapped something on my Uber app. Suddenly, my entire screen exploded into bright orange. Not just an orange button or notification, but the whole screen became a blazing beacon with "Toyota Camry" displayed prominently. Instinctively, I held up my phone so the driver could see this glowing orange display. Within seconds, my driver was honking and waving as he pulled up.