The chatbot default
Every AI product in 2025 ships with a chat interface. It has become the default, the unquestioned starting point. Type a prompt, get a response, repeat.
This is lazy design. And for most use cases, it is the wrong choice.
The chat paradigm works for a narrow set of problems: open-ended exploration, creative brainstorming, casual information retrieval. But the moment you need precision, repeatability, or integration into a workflow, the chat box becomes a liability.
Three things consumer AI gets wrong
1. Treating AI as a conversational partner instead of a tool.
Most people do not want to have a conversation with their software. They want to accomplish a task. The anthropomorphization of AI — giving it a name, a personality, a tone — is a distraction from the actual design problem: how do you surface the right capability at the right moment?
2. Hiding complexity behind a single input field.
A blank text box is the most intimidating interface in existence. It offers infinite possibility and zero guidance. Good interface design is about constraining choices productively — helping people express intent without requiring them to formulate perfect prose.
Consumer AI products have outsourced the design problem to the user. "Just write a better prompt" is not a UX strategy.
3. Prioritizing demonstration over integration.
Most AI features in consumer products feel bolted on. They exist to generate a press release, not to solve a problem. The AI summarizes something you did not need summarized. It suggests something you did not ask for. It interrupts a workflow that was working fine.
The best AI interface is one where the user does not notice the AI.
What good AI design looks like
In the work we do at Helsing, AI is not the product. It is an enabler. The interface does not celebrate the AI — it celebrates the operator's decision-making. This means:
- AI outputs are presented as inputs to human judgment, not as answers
- Confidence levels are explicit, not hidden behind a polished veneer of certainty
- The system explains what it did and why, so the human can calibrate trust
- Fallback paths are always visible — what happens when the AI is wrong?
The consumer tech industry is in love with AI as spectacle. The serious applications of AI require design that is humble, transparent, and deeply integrated into how people actually work.
We need fewer chatbots and more thoughtful systems.