The AI Agent Revolution and the Future of Human Experience

A woman wearing futuristic VR or AR glasses interacts with a digital interface. Her finger touches floating holographic icons and light trails, suggesting virtual navigation or data access. The background is modern and minimalistic.
Image created in Google aistudio

The claim that the user interface (UI) as we know it is numbered may sound like thunder in a clear sky to many, but to those who have followed the trajectory of technology, it is merely the next storm on the horizon.

The future of the human experience with digital products necessarily depends on the relationship we will have with information — whether predicted or post-dicted.

The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and, soon, quantum computing, will dictate the evolution of the digital environment we live in and, consequently, the evolution of human beings themselves over the coming decades — or perhaps the next century.

Technology is not an end, but a means that continually redefines our perception and interaction with the world. And now, we stand at the threshold of the deepest of these redefinitions.

Jakob Nielsen’s Prediction

At the epicenter of this debate is a recent post by Jakob Nielsen, one of the pioneers of usability and a revered voice in the field of user experience (UX) design.

With a bold statement, he sparked a fervent debate among professionals in the field:

“No more UI: once superintelligence arrives in 2030, there will be no UI design, since users will be using their agents instead of interacting directly with websites or traditional software.”
 — Jakob Nielsen

On May 8, 2025, Nielsen launched this straightforward premise: with the advent of superintelligence, or even with faster advances in AI agents, users will no longer interact directly with graphical interfaces of websites and apps.

Instead, they will delegate tasks to intelligent “agents” that will act on their behalf. The need to design buttons, menus, and complex navigation flows would vanish, as interaction would occur through commands and dialogues with these digital assistants.

The reactions, taken from comments on his LinkedIn post, were immediate and diverse, reflecting the complexity of the subject. Product design leader Kori Handy expressed skepticism grounded in the observation of younger generations, who, according to him, seek less technology and are not as fascinated by AI.

Others, like Łukasz Roth, raised a crucial semantic question: “Wouldn’t interacting with agents still be a User Interface?”

That question encapsulates the heart of the counterargument: UI is not disappearing, but transforming into something new — perhaps less visual and more conversational.

While some, like AL Carmona, applauded Nielsen’s vision as “eye-opening,” others, such as Tova R., suggested that the importance of “user interface design” is already declining in favor of a more holistic view of experience and services.

The debate, therefore, is not whether change will happen, but what its nature and scale will be.

From Graphical Interfaces to Intelligent Agents

To understand the magnitude of Nielsen’s forecast, we must look back. The history of human-computer interaction is a chronicle of the relentless pursuit to make technology more accessible and intuitive.

As detailed by Filipe Nzongo in UX Collective, the journey began in the 1950s with punch cards and manual wiring, a form of interaction that demanded deep technical knowledge.

The first major revolution came with the Command Line Interface (CLI) in the 1960s, which allowed users to interact with systems via text commands. Although more accessible than manual wiring, it was still largely for specialists.

True democratization of access began with the Graphical User Interface (GUI), conceived at Xerox PARC in the 1970s by visionaries like Alan Kay.
Inspired by the desktop metaphor (folders, files, workspace), the GUI introduced visual elements like windows, icons, menus, and pointers (the famous WIMP paradigm).

This approach, popularized by Apple and Microsoft, made computers comprehensible to the general public because it mirrored real-world interactions.

The next step was the Natural User Interface (NUI), which sought to eliminate intermediaries such as mice and keyboards. The iPhone’s 2007 launch was a milestone, popularizing touch- and gesture-based interfaces.
Shortly after, Voice User Interfaces (VUIs) like Siri and Alexa rose to prominence, enabling even more natural interaction through speech.

As noted by UserGuiding, touchless and voice interactions are growing trends, accelerated by the demand for safer and more convenient interactions.

Within this evolutionary context, Nielsen’s proposal of a future dominated by AI agents is not a total rupture, but the next logical step.

We are moving from a model of direct manipulation (clicking, dragging, tapping) to one of delegation (expressing an intention and having an intelligent agent execute it).

The interface ceases to be a control panel and becomes a digital butler.

The Role of Artificial Intelligence in Transforming Experience

The rise of agents is fueled by monumental advances in AI, particularly in three interrelated areas: Generative AI, hyperpersonalization, and conversational AI.

Generative AI: Beyond Automation, Toward Creation

Generative AI, popularized by tools like ChatGPT and diffusion image models, is the ability of machines to create entirely new and original content — text, images, code, music — based on training data.

In the UX/UI context, its impact is twofold. First, it accelerates design processes by automating repetitive tasks, freeing designers to focus on strategy.

Second, and more crucially, Generative AI can create dynamic, adaptive interfaces in real time.

As explored by Conceitos.tech, a system could generate a completely new interface layout tailored to a specific user’s preferences and behavior, making every experience unique.

Hyperpersonalization: The Tailored Experience

Personalization is not new, but AI elevates it to unprecedented levels. Hyperpersonalization uses AI to analyze massive datasets — purchase history, browsing behavior, current context — to anticipate needs and adapt experiences in real time.

This expectation is already a reality: a McKinsey study cited by NTT DATA reveals that 71% of consumers expect personalized interactions, and 76% feel frustrated when they don’t get them.

Zendesk reinforces that AI is the key to meeting this demand, transforming customer experiences by delivering relevant recommendations and anticipating problems before they arise.

Conversational Agents: The Emergence of Agentic Experience (AX)

This is the heart of Nielsen’s prediction. AI agents, or conversational agents, are systems that go far beyond traditional chatbots.

They don’t just answer questions — they perform complex, multi-step tasks on behalf of users.

The market for this technology is booming. Future Market Insights, cited by E-commerce Brasil, projects the global conversational commerce market to jump from $8.8 billion in 2025 to $32.7 billion in 2035.

Another report, highlighted by Panorama Político, forecasts 192% growth in the conversational AI market by 2031.

This paradigm shift has led some experts to coin a new term: moving from UX (User Experience) to AX (Agentic Experience).

In the AX era, the focus of design is no longer on creating static flows for the user to follow, but on designing the agent’s goals, capabilities, and personality to act on the user’s behalf.

The experience becomes “liquid,” shaped in real time by the interaction between user, agent, and the digital service ecosystem.

“No UI” or a New UI? Redefining the Interface

Nielsen’s provocation “No more UI” is powerful, but perhaps imprecise. As noted in the comments to his post, interacting with an agent still requires an… interface.

The point is that the nature of this interface is changing fundamentally.

The interface is becoming less visual and more abstract. Instead of a screen full of buttons, the “interface” may be:

  • The Conversation: Dialogue — whether text or voice — becomes the main medium of interaction. Designing a good conversational interface requires clarity, persona definition, context management, and handling ambiguity, as explored in a Tera blog article.
  • The Set of Capabilities: An agent’s “UI” is defined by what it can do. User experience is determined by the breadth, reliability, and intelligence of the agent’s actions.
  • Trust: In a delegation model, trust is the most critical interface component. Users must trust that the agent will understand their intent and act in their best interest. Designing for trust becomes central.
  • Feedback: How the agent communicates progress, confirms actions, and presents results is itself a form of interface. It may be a subtle notification, a verbal summary, or an on-demand data visualization.

Thus, rather than the end of UI, we are witnessing its dematerialization and fusion with the very logic of the service.

Design shifts from the surface (visuals) to the structure (conversation, actions, trust).

The Quantum Horizon: The Next Frontier of Computing and Experience

If AI already promises a revolution, quantum computing represents a paradigm shift on an even greater scale.

With the UN designating 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology, attention on this field is skyrocketing.

While classical computers use bits (0 or 1), quantum computers use qubits. Thanks to quantum mechanics principles like superposition (a qubit can be both 0 and 1 simultaneously) and entanglement (qubits linked instantly regardless of distance), they promise exponentially greater processing power for certain problems.

The synergy between quantum computing and AI is particularly promising.

Quantum computing could dramatically accelerate AI model training, enabling much more complex and powerful systems.

Imagine an AI that doesn’t just personalize product recommendations but simulates complex scenarios in real time to optimize your entire life: from health (via molecular interaction simulations for personalized medicine) to finances and daily logistics.

This unprecedented processing capacity will fuel AI agents with contextual understanding and predictive capabilities that today seem like science fiction. “User experience” could become a continuous symbiosis, where technology not only responds to commands but proactively anticipates needs with astonishing precision — powered by models of complexity only quantum computing can handle.

Here, the “interface” becomes almost invisible: an ambient layer of intelligence constantly assisting us. Moreover, quantum internet promises a new level of communication security, foundational to the trust required for delegating increasingly critical tasks to these agents.

The Future of UX/UI Professionals: Adaptation or Extinction?

Faced with such a transformative scenario, what happens to the millions of UX/UI designers worldwide?

The answer is not extinction, but profound and necessary evolution. The UX services market, in fact, continues to grow strongly.

A report by Fortune Business Insights projects that the global UX services market will grow from $6.40 billion in 2025 to an impressive $54.93 billion by 2032, at an annual growth rate of 36%.

What is changing is the nature of the work. Future skills for experience professionals will focus less on visual design tools and more on:

  • Systems Design and Strategy: Designing complex ecosystems where multiple agents and services interact.
  • Psychology and Ethics: Understanding human motivations to build trust-based interactions and designing agents that act ethically and responsibly.
  • Conversational Design: Writing clear dialogues, crafting agent personas, and designing effective conversation flows will be fundamental.
  • Data Science: The ability to understand and interpret the data powering AI to make informed design decisions.
  • “Chief Ontology Officer”: As suggested in The State of UX in 2025, designers may become “curators of meaning,” defining knowledge structures and mental models that agents will use to understand the world.

Designers will no longer be “screen architects” but “architects of intelligent interactions.”

The focus will shift from “how it looks” to “how it works,” “how it thinks,” and “how it behaves.”

Conclusion: Information + Technology = Innovation

Jakob Nielsen’s provocation, though radical, serves as a powerful call for reflection.

The “end of UI” is not the end of experience design but its rebirth into a more abstract, powerful, and profoundly human form.

Traditional visual interfaces, which dominated computing for nearly 50 years, may indeed become secondary — Plan B for when conversational interaction with our agents fails or is inadequate.

We are redefining our relationship with information. From passive consumers, we became direct manipulators, and now, delegators of intention.

Each stage of this journey has been propelled by technology, the great catalyst of innovation. AI and, in the future, quantum computing are the forces shaping the next chapter of this story.

The challenge for creators, designers, and technologists is not to mourn the end of an era but to embrace the complexity of the next.

The ultimate goal remains the same: to use technology to expand human capabilities, make life easier, and craft experiences that are not only useful and usable but meaningful and trustworthy.

The interface may change its form, but the need to design the bridge between humans and machines is eternal.

After all, the fundamental equation driving our progress remains unchanged: Information + Technology = Innovation.

References

The End of the User Interface? was originally published in UX Planet on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.