AI and the New UX Paradigm
AI and the New UX Paradigm
Aug 16, 2025
Joao Henrique
AI
A couple of weeks ago, I attended a Stripe event where Mark Zuckerberg laid out Meta’s ambitions to shape the next major platform for human–computer interaction. For Meta, this means betting big on smart glasses.
Just days later, OpenAI announced a deal with io, the company founded by Jony Ive (ex-Apple design executive from the Steve Jobs era who shaped many of the company’s most famous products). Their focus? The very same thing: reimagining the next interface between humans and machines.
This sudden convergence is not a coincidence. The current computing platform (the smartphone) is controlled by Apple and Google. Every app, every service, every new idea from competitors like Meta, OpenAI, or anyone else, has to pass through iOS and Android’s gates. Whoever owns the platform controls the rules of the game.
User Experience (UX) Paradigms Are Changing
If the phone was the dominant interface of the 2010s and 2020s, what comes next?
The metaverse was supposed to be one answer, but it landed at the wrong moment. It was too early, too clunky, and poorly aligned with what people wanted.
AI, however, is different. It is not only a new technology but one that demands new UX paradigms. As Jakob Nielsen from Nielsen Norman Group has pointed out in one of his articles, conversational AI challenges decades of design patterns. The app grid, menus, and even search bars suddenly feel outdated.
This shift opens the door for new platforms (like smart glasses), but it also allows companies and startups to rethink the tools they use, and how they work in order to increase productivity and business results.
In the past revolutions the companies that gave their employees the most advanced tools for them to work with, capitalized on the benefits of doing so. Companies can once more do it again.
Chaos Benefits Everyone, Not Just Startups.
It’s common to say that startups thrive in times of technological chaos. That’s true: disruption lowers barriers, creates space, and gives the small and fast a shot.
But it’s easy to forget that incumbents benefit from chaos too. They have far more capital, talent, and distribution, and for the first time, they are also technologists (they were the startups not long ago). When the foundations of interaction change, they have just as much incentive (if not more) to fight for control of the new layer.
That’s exactly why Meta, OpenAI, and others are so aggressively pursuing the post-phone era.
It’s a very interesting time to be building and to be rethinking how your company is working and adapting to this new era.
Are you thinking about how to improve your business results with new tech? Astra can help you navigate this decision better. Click here to schedule your call with us.
A couple of weeks ago, I attended a Stripe event where Mark Zuckerberg laid out Meta’s ambitions to shape the next major platform for human–computer interaction. For Meta, this means betting big on smart glasses.
Just days later, OpenAI announced a deal with io, the company founded by Jony Ive (ex-Apple design executive from the Steve Jobs era who shaped many of the company’s most famous products). Their focus? The very same thing: reimagining the next interface between humans and machines.
This sudden convergence is not a coincidence. The current computing platform (the smartphone) is controlled by Apple and Google. Every app, every service, every new idea from competitors like Meta, OpenAI, or anyone else, has to pass through iOS and Android’s gates. Whoever owns the platform controls the rules of the game.
User Experience (UX) Paradigms Are Changing
If the phone was the dominant interface of the 2010s and 2020s, what comes next?
The metaverse was supposed to be one answer, but it landed at the wrong moment. It was too early, too clunky, and poorly aligned with what people wanted.
AI, however, is different. It is not only a new technology but one that demands new UX paradigms. As Jakob Nielsen from Nielsen Norman Group has pointed out in one of his articles, conversational AI challenges decades of design patterns. The app grid, menus, and even search bars suddenly feel outdated.
This shift opens the door for new platforms (like smart glasses), but it also allows companies and startups to rethink the tools they use, and how they work in order to increase productivity and business results.
In the past revolutions the companies that gave their employees the most advanced tools for them to work with, capitalized on the benefits of doing so. Companies can once more do it again.
Chaos Benefits Everyone, Not Just Startups.
It’s common to say that startups thrive in times of technological chaos. That’s true: disruption lowers barriers, creates space, and gives the small and fast a shot.
But it’s easy to forget that incumbents benefit from chaos too. They have far more capital, talent, and distribution, and for the first time, they are also technologists (they were the startups not long ago). When the foundations of interaction change, they have just as much incentive (if not more) to fight for control of the new layer.
That’s exactly why Meta, OpenAI, and others are so aggressively pursuing the post-phone era.
It’s a very interesting time to be building and to be rethinking how your company is working and adapting to this new era.
Are you thinking about how to improve your business results with new tech? Astra can help you navigate this decision better. Click here to schedule your call with us.