In the age of generative AI, user experience is reborn from apps to natural language.

Today, we use apps for everything we do. Searching and browsing websites, researching, document creation, reading, communication, networking, creative work, and of course, work. But did you know that behind this convenience lies a "fragmented reality"? This time, we explore how the traditional app-centric digital experience is changing with the advent of generative AI, considering its potential and future.

<Table of Contents>
▼Moving Beyond a Digital World of Single-Purpose Apps

▼The Emergence of Real-Time Interaction

▼Shifting Design Toward Natural Language-Centric Interaction

▼Five Principles for Designing Natural Language-Centric Experiences

▼The Paradigm Shift Toward App-Free Interactions

Breaking Free from a Digital World of Single-Purpose Apps

Our current digital lives resemble living amidst a collection of isolated islands—single-purpose apps. Each app operates independently, constantly demanding our focused attention. Consequently, the user experience (UX) becomes fragmented. The walled ecosystems of individual service providers take precedence over our diverse, evolving needs.

In reality, using apps and websites isn't always the most efficient way to complete tasks. They are particularly ill-suited for complex work that requires frequent task switching and is mentally taxing.

Consider, for example, comparing costs to book a flight. You must first browse various sites and apps to compare fares and routes, then return to the site of the flight you've chosen to complete the booking. While sites exist that allow you to compare the latest prices, they remain cumbersome and far from offering a smooth, end-to-end booking process. Furthermore, these sites often lack transparency in price display, undermining trust, and their search methods are complex and difficult to navigate.

Nevertheless, transformation is indeed underway, with a major shift occurring from app-centric to natural language-centric user experiences we use daily. Recently, this trend has accelerated further thanks to the powerful tool of generative AI. The user journey is transcending the boundaries between individual platforms, transforming interactions with fragmented, frustrating apps and sites into a cohesive, unified experience.

The Emergence of Real-Time Interaction

Today's consumers, especially Gen Z and Gen Alpha born after the 1990s, crave real-time experiences that anticipate their needs. These generations envision a future where AI acts as an invisible assistant, seamlessly integrating various tasks and services while instantly providing knowledge and solutions.

A prime example of this transformation is the innovative personal AI assistant "Rabbit r1." The Large-Scale Action Model (LAM) employed by Rabbit r1 acts as a "universal controller for apps," not only learning user preferences but also executing actions aligned with them. It anticipates user needs, gathers tasks from various apps, and seamlessly integrates them.

For example, imagine planning a weekend getaway. Having learned your preferences, r1 manages everything from flight and hotel arrangements to restaurant and leisure bookings, building a seamless experience so you never need to navigate separate apps. Similarly, train it to streamline bill payments, and you'll never again need to hunt for phone numbers or struggle with unresponsive online forms.

Other AI use cases demonstrate how traditional apps are losing ground. At the 2024 Mobile World Congress (the world's largest mobile trade show), German telecom company Deutsche Telekom unveiled an app-free mobile phone. Its CEO, Timotheus Höttges, declared, "In five to ten years, no one will use apps anymore."

Shifting Design Focus Toward Natural Language-Centric Interaction

This emerging environment presents unique challenges and opportunities. The shift towards natural language-centric interaction means the primary way we interact with digital devices will closely resemble human-to-human communication. There will be no need to laboriously navigate multiple apps to complete a single action. You'll simply tell the device what you want to do via chat or voice recognition.

This paradigm shift fundamentally changes how we approach designing products and services, making natural language interactions the standard. A company's competitiveness will increasingly be determined not just by its user interface (the touchpoints users encounter when using web services, sites, apps, etc.), but also by its service delivery model.

Five Principles for Designing Natural Language-Centric Experiences

Here, we introduce the guiding principles for design in this new era and their respective use cases.

1. Privacy as a Paradigm

Given that AI actions occur behind the scenes, building trust becomes paramount. We must design for ethical and transparent AI, empowering users to control their data privacy. To establish trust in this early stage of the AI revolution, it's crucial to enable users to verify and correct data and outputs from large language models (LLMs) and LAMs.

2.Seamless Interoperability

We must break down barriers between apps, enabling seamless exchange of data and services. For example, an AI assistant could integrate calendars, fitness trackers, and music streaming services to adjust schedules, workouts, and playlists in real-time based on the user's needs and preferences.

3. Adaptive Experiences

Future experiences must dynamically respond to user needs through context awareness. LAM enables anyone to train their desired experience. For instance, after a busy day, it could automatically dim the lights and play soothing music, transforming your home into a healing space.

4.Balancing Efficiency and Empathy

It is essential to prioritize designs that empathize with users, not just pursue task efficiency. For instance, a mental health service could act as a caring partner, offering thoughtful questions tailored to the user's current mood or state of mind, listening attentively, or encouraging introspection through dialogue.

5. Exploration, Sensibility, Expression

In a future where AI-driven recommendations, content generation, and experience optimization become commonplace, safeguarding the unique expression of individuals and brands becomes critically important. While AI excels at efficiency and integration, we must create spaces that distance themselves from uniformity. We envision a future where people and companies have the freedom to explore, cultivate their own sense of style, and build vibrant expressions. Such intentional design strategies will be key to preserving diversity and supporting the richness of individual and brand expression in AI-assisted environments.

The Paradigm Shift to App-Free

We are not only at the forefront of new products and technologies, but also at the vanguard of paradigm shifts. Both emerging startups and established companies are beginning to recognize this. Future users will seek experiences that flow as naturally as their thoughts and emotions.

The transformation toward natural language-centric design has already begun. Are you ready to practice design worthy of such an era? Let's embark together on a journey to reshape the digital environment ahead—making it more intuitive, user-centric, efficient, and responsive to our human needs.

This article is also published in the web magazine "AXIS".