GenAI and the UX Revolution
GenAI chatbots have put conversational AI into everyone’s hands. It’s no longer science fiction. It’s part of everyday life. People know they can type in a question and get a meaningful response, so asking them to fill in clunky forms or navigate last-generation search processes isn’t going to cut it. Organizations must step up to meet the demands of audiences who now expect nothing less than seamless, intuitive natural language interactions.
For too long, some brands and organizations have been able to get away with providing substandard experiences. Now, with GenAI rewriting the rulebook, it’s time to rethink what great digital experiences look and feel like.
The UX revolution
The AI revolution is really a user experience revolution. GenAI is fundamentally shifting how humans engage with computers and how we experience the digital world.
For years, the way we’ve interacted with computers was dictated by how they process information — structured forms, rigid commands and predefined inputs. GenAI has transformed this relationship, and we can now interact with computers more naturally, sharing a paragraph of text in our own voice, with a large language model pulling out the information it needs.
The benefits of GenAI-powered UX are enormous — for both organizations and audiences. As Katerina Nishan, Associate Creative Director at Valtech, explains: “Think of it as technology that really 'gets' you. It picks up on small clues, like how you interact with content or the words you use, and adjusts itself to match. This means we can build products that feel more natural and helpful.”
We’re moving from a world of imperative commands, where you must give a system precise instructions for every task (e.g. clicks and forms) to declarative interactions, where you state what you want, and the system figures out the steps. Agentic flows are likely to become more common across user interactions. Agentic AI acts proactively, independently determining the steps needed to achieve your goal. Acting as an “agent” on your behalf, it handles decisions and manages the details, allowing you to focus on the outcome rather than the process.
An evolving relationship
Our relationship with computers is continually evolving, and it’s giving rise to an increasingly shared perception of the world. Gartner says 40% of generative AI solutions will be multimodal by 2027, encompassing text, image, audio and video. Google’s Project Astra — an exploration of the future of AI assistants — has already demonstrated interactive and immersive experiences, able to respond dynamically to real-world inputs from users’ cameras.
Future interactions between humans and machines could become as natural as thinking. Neuralink is pushing the boundaries of human-computer interactions, exploring brain-computer interfaces that use small, internal implants to wirelessly transmit data to external devices. This could take a sense of shared perception to an entirely new level, with AI operating at speeds beyond our ability to make us super-human.
Building the future is a team effort
The seismic shift in user expectations and the potential to create ever more immersive and intuitive experiences is also shaping the development process. Close collaboration and cross-functional teams are key to building a new generation of experiences.
Designers, engineers and AI experts must come together to brainstorm, collaborate and push boundaries. It’s not enough for designers to come up with great ideas if they don’t fully understand what the AI can do, and it’s not enough for engineers to know the tech without thinking about how the user will interact with it.
Both sides need to be open-minded and willing to engage with each other’s expertise. The best ideas come when you can explore possibilities together, where designers imagine what’s possible, and engineers validate or stretch those ideas based on the best available technology.
AI can also streamline and accelerate the development process. As Elizabeth Eagle-Simbeye, Principal UX Consultant at Valtech, explained in a recent article, “Designers and developers collaborate to establish templates and logic for core workflows, allowing the same system to handle all edge cases that arise.”
She adds, “It empowers teams to solve problems on the fly without having to stop and rethink the whole experience.” This collaborative approach not only boosts efficiency but also ensures greater flexibility in addressing challenges as they emerge.
A future of frictionless experiences
Customers expect frictionless experiences, and they are willing to spend more when they get them. Amazon pioneered one-click shopping in the 1990s, but recent research carried out at Cornell University shows just how impactful this kind of simplicity can be — increasing spending by an average of 28.5% compared to previous levels.
Now, GenAI can help to remove friction points at every stage of a user journey, and it’s a critical tool in creating engaging experiences that are seamless, intelligent and human-like.
But embracing GenAI is bigger than a single use case or benefit. It’s about unlocking the ability to successfully compete in an evolving marketplace. The bar for user experience has been raised, and if you don’t have a GenAI strategy in place, you’re already playing catch-up.
