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Beyond the Chatbox: Designing AI Into Products
AI can feel more useful when it appears at the right point in a task instead of occupying a separate chat surface.
By SEM Lab3 min read
Put help where the work happens
A chatbox can be a flexible starting point, but it also asks people to translate their task into a prompt. In many products, the system already knows the relevant object, state, and next decision.
Contextual assistance can offer a suggestion beside the work itself. The interface should still explain why that suggestion appears and let the person decide what to do with it.
Design for a graceful no
Not every suggestion will be useful. A simple dismiss, edit, or retry path makes assistance feel optional and keeps the underlying product usable.
