Post-app interactions

Why is this interesting?

As large language models evolve into voice, text, and image-driven autonomous agents, the idea of the app as an interface might become redundant. What does this mean for HMI design?

Key products and services:

  • Rabbit R1

  • Humane AI Pin

  • WHSP Ring

  • Perplexity Apple Watch concept

The critical questions:

  • What happens when the app disappears as the primary means of digital interaction?

  • How might autonomous agents enable a radical reimagining of the in-car experience and the HMI that controls it?

  • What is the tone of your brand, and how does that come to life through text, voice and image? And what is the tone customers expect from your brand?

The detail:

A critical next stage in the development of artificial intelligence will be autonomous agents. These will be able to take a task like "Book my car in for a service" and break that down in to a series of goals, actions and interactions with data sources and service providers to complete the task on the user's behalf. For users, this will mean the replacement of tapping through a sequence of screens across various apps, to simply making a request and having it completed.

This opens up opportunities for radically simplified interfaces that focus on confirmation of the request and the validation and presentation of the result. The Rabbit R1, Humane AI Pin and the WHISP ring are all examples of early exploration in this space and while none of them convincingly solve the challenge of a new interface paradigm, they provide interesting food for thought.


To explore how this theme might inspire and inform your design strategy, get in touch!

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