Can User Interfaces be Replaced by AI-Based Agents?

Many businesses today struggle with staying on top of innovation and increasing revenue. The customer experience and overall behavior add a layer that places greater focus on UX/UI designs to create the level of user-friendliness needed for sustained customer retention, engagement and brand promotion.

Design tools that are algorithm-driven assist with constructing a UI as well as prepare content and the overall personalization of the user experience. Does this mean that Artificial Intelligence will replace user interfaces?

Increased Productivity

The fact is, UX and AI are basically commingled in the new design era. It is a widely held belief that AI will inevitably replace designers that the intrinsic need for human-driven UX. According to Futurist Thomas Frey, “2 billion jobs will disappear by 2030, and robots will probably take over a portion of jobs which are now occupied by humans.” By using AI in UI design, the overall productivity of designers will increase via the training of robots to conduct tasks such as color scheme adjustment and resizing, which gives designers the ability to focus on more complex UI design elements.

Improved Design Systems

By utilizing AI in UI design, overall designer productivity will be increased as robots can be trained to perform specific design elements that will essentially allow designers to place their focus on strategic and complicated UI design elements. When machines automate these repetitive tasks, human creativity is increased along with elements such as automation, the creation of more effective functions within modular design systems and personalized system.

Optimization and Speed

Artificial intelligence focuses primarily on increasing speed and optimization. Using AI, designers can create designs more efficiently while harnessing the ability to analyze high volumes of data, allowing the ability of the designer to focus on more effective testing and prototype creation. Companies such as Airbnb actively uses AI to generate production-ready design components derived from manual wireframe sketches.

Human Connection

Because artificial intelligence can analyze large amounts of collected data, the human connection can be deepened. This can be seen via an application such as digital personal assistants like Amazon’s Alexa, or other smart home applications that control applications, security, and lighting with voice-activated commands. With repeated use of these applications, consumers create deeper relationships which creates an overall greater user experience as the applications collect and quickly analyzes data to create an engaged and personalized user experience.

While the total replacement of UI/UX with Artificial Intelligence is likely not to occur in the very near future, artificial intelligence will continue to improve and serve as an asset by assisting UI/UX designers with repetitive tasks, allowing them to focus on more complicated design elements which will create a deeper more personalized experience.

Machine learning will contribute to a better understanding of human behavior that cannot be transitioned into traditional machine learning solutions. As a result, artificial intelligence integration can be used collaboratively with user interface design to improve the user experience in the most impactful way. The goal of UX and AI is to better understand users while maintaining a human connection, not eliminate it altogether.

For now, finding ways to exploit AI while continuing to make UI/UX design while creating a smooth design process that not only increases speed but productivity as AI continues to evolve as a viable technology solution.