Enterprise applications are undergoing a significant transformation, driven by advances in AI and user experience design. Since the emergence of reasoning capabilities within the paradigm of AI, and with agents able to break complex tasks into smaller chunks and execute them with greater abilities, the technology is paving the way for a more intuitive and unified interface. But the question remains – How does AI-driven reasoning impact the way we design and interact with the applications?
At LUMIQ, we call this UUAI - Unified User and AI Interface. This is where the users and the AI seamlessly interact with each other, leveraging the capabilities that humans are best at – voice, video and natural language. To understand this further, let us compare the era before and after Generative AI and its reasoning capabilities.
When the AI/ML technology gained popularity, it remained limited to enriching the existing applications with specific insights and recommendations and the applications were still built with fixed UI, requiring users to navigate through structured menus, forms, etc. While these interfaces provide consistency, they often create inefficiencies. As business environments grow more dynamic, these rigid UI structures struggle to keep up with user needs, leading to friction in workflows and decreased productivity. From a user perspective, the emphasis was on making the UI/UX highly intuitive to ease out data entry and enable basic decision-making.
In a typical enterprise setting, the user and application interaction looked like
User (Human) - Codified Instructions & Data (Apps) -> Decision aided by AI/ML Insights -> Instructions/Tasks → Application/Computer
Humanized User Interface (UI)
The next generation of enterprise applications is moving towards integrating interactions – driven primarily by natural language – audio, video and text. So now, instead of users adapting to software, AI-powered systems now adapt to users, offering a personalized experience based on user behavior.
The agentic framework typically addresses this through the following steps
The user (human) will define a goal
The AI agent will use reasoning to break down the goal into smaller task
The agent then executes the task with extreme precision, with continuous updates as required
In this model, the typical UI now evolves from basic data entry operations to a guidance tool. The business logic becomes more fluid and driven by human interactions than a preset form.
The Future is UUAI- AI Native & Humanized
Going forward, the UIs will be generated dynamically by AI/Gen AI, based on the user information (whatever is available). However, there are three key requirements:
Human Interventions – In cases, where AI is unable to make accurate decisions, a minimal UI should appear and showcase the context understood by it, enabling the user (human) to validate the same. These periodic interventions also serve as feedback loops, which improves the performance of AI over time. However, a simple interface (voice or text) is enough, and no excessive design is required.
Audit & Monitoring – As the agents take on more and more responsibilities, a visual dashboard that can act as a control center or an oversight center becomes necessary. This is basically like an Air Traffic Control Tower (ATC), which can help monitor and manage everything.
Detailed Logs – To ensure complete compliance with regulatory requirements, it is important that every action that the agent takes must be traceable (store steps, decisions, reasoning, etc). This is very critical and important in regulated industries like Insurance.
The evolution of enterprise applications from static UI-driven interfaces to AI-powered unified experiences is redefining the way businesses operate. As AI continues to mature, organizations must embrace this shift to stay competitive and enhance overall efficiency. By integrating AI-driven interfaces, businesses can create more intuitive, efficient, and adaptive enterprise applications that align with the needs of modern users.
As AI agents become more and more accessible, much of the UI (complex forms and dense screens) that we know today will gradually fade away. Minimalistic and dynamic interfaces that can present information in a much more presentable and interesting manner, focussing on targeted interactions and interventions, will take over. This paradigm shift of reasoning requires us to move from the User Interface (UI) of today to the UUAI – Unified User and AI Interface.
The question isn’t if this shift will happen but when. The evidence suggests it’s already underway, with enterprises experimenting in various domains. As AI’s reasoning capabilities improve, so will the way we design and experience UIs. If you are already using agents or building ones – we can help you reimagine the AI Knowledge Workforce.
Author: Vaibhav Dobriyal Dobi, Co-Founder and Chief Product Officer, LUMIQ
Disclaimer: The opinions expressed within this article are the personal opinions of the author. The facts and opinions appearing in the article do not reflect the views of IIA and IIA does not assume any responsibility or liability for the same.