Imagine never clicking an app again. Always. Gone are the days of finding yourself staring blankly at the start screen of a new tool and wondering “What do I do now?” they disappear.
AI is quietly changing the way software is built and it's a big deal. Instead of software applications that users must learn to navigate, we are seeing the birth of applications that users can talk to.
Once you see it, it's impossible to ignore. Software applications are moving from dashboards and processes to chat rooms. Basically, users don't want tools, they want results, and AI is now making it possible to deliver them.
Meaning, if you want to generate a report that takes 5 tabs to run, you can just type “generate a summary of our quarterly results” and that's it. It helps, but it's also weird. It's as if software has gone from something you use to something that works for you. It's like a co-worker.
But this article is not the only one that says that. I looked at a number of other articles discussing what the current state of the industry is, and there is a trend towards automating business processes, and letting AI take over.
Companies are optimizing for speed, efficiency, scalability, and perhaps because of a lack of information about what is happening in their companies. I don't know.
I am sad. On the other hand, I like that idea. I'd rather do a little busy work. On the other hand, I feel like we will lose knowledge of what we are doing. It's like everyone using GPS makes us worse at walking.
In addition, there are far-reaching economic consequences. AI isn't just changing the way we interact with software, it's changing the way we work. That's fine, in principle. Except now the jobs that powered that productivity could be handled by AI, too.
Oh, and almost no one is talking about the psychological effects of all this. We're not just changing what we use, we're changing how we behave. Instead of needing to understand something, we only need to understand how to ask about it.
This is a big change. Yes, it makes things easier, more accessible… but it also makes us more dependent on things we don't understand.
I found a general treatment of how AI affects society that kind of affects this trade-off between efficiency and agency, speed and understanding..Everything is complicated. It always is.
So yes. Software is evolving. Go fast. It's easy.
But the thought that keeps echoing in my mind is this: when we make everything as simple as asking a question… do we stop caring about the answers?
Because once you get used to it the software will just listen to you… well. There is no turning back.
