Goodbye Chatbots, Hello AI Agents
Key insights of today’s newsletter:
For a long time chatbots failed to meet expectations due to their inability to handle the complexity of human conversations.
The emergence of AI agents, powered by generative AI, represents a new generation of assistants that are more flexible, can do stuff for you, and in the near future may even act on your behalf.
The transition from chatbots to AI agents is more than a name change; it’s a departure from the old frustrations and a push towards a more exciting future.
↓ Go deeper (4 min read)
Chatbots or chatterbots, once hailed as the future of interaction, never really lived up to their promise. They had a bad reputation, for years. That’s because even with the best of intentions, all we could squeeze out of the technology was sub-optimal user experiences.
It’s nobody’s fault, really. Language is hard. People are unpredictable. When you try to anticipate an unlimited number of conversations with a limited number of responses, you always end up short.
That is, until last year, when we saw the rise of a new type of AI assistant, powered by LLMs. They seem to understand language better than anything else that came before. Not only have they proven to be more flexible, they can also do stuff — like running code and surfing the web — which is why leaders in the field, including Sam Altman, like to refer to them as AI agents.
This transition from chatbots to AI Agents can partly be seen as a rebranding effort, aimed at distancing these advanced systems from the shortcomings associated with their predecessors. But it also marks a pivotal moment. We are witnessing a departure of sorts, a generation of chatbots (and the frustration that came with them) is dying — and replaced with something new.
A glimpse into the future of conversational AI
To give you a sneak peek of where we’re headed, I’ve selected 3 video’s for you:
Arc Browser by The Browser Company
The browser that browses for you — it’s a great tagline. On their website, they explain how our browsers have remained relatively unchanged over the past 20 years. The Browser Company is challenging the status quo.
Rabbit R1 by rabbit inc.
Launched on CES 2024, the company Rabbit sold 50K+ devices during pre-sales, based of a demo alone. This colorful, flashy pocket computer has an AI agent baked into it; a retro-style rabbit that you can command with your voice.
Glean
Glean is an AI-powered work assistant that works across your company’s data. From all of the promo videos, this is the most boring one. But the solution is deceptively powerful and competes directly with what Google is trying to achieve with Gemini, and Microsoft with 365 Copilot.
Finally, last week, The Information reported that OpenAI is developing an AI agent to “automate complex tasks by effectively taking over a customer’s device”.
It fits into a broader trend, similar to what the Rabbit R1 is doing, which is teaching computers how to use our devices for us: perform cursor movements, click buttons, etc. Now, you might think that is a rather bad idea, and it probably is; a lot more can go wrong than right, as explained eloquently as always by
.A new generation of assistants has arrived
That being said, I hope these examples provide a small window in the world of conversational AI anno 2024.
I am thoroughly convinced that we, as designers, are presented with a unique opportunity to radically transform the way we build digital assistants, from the ground up, and create the conversational experiences that we always wanted for our users. Personal, relevant, and deeply intuitive.
Let’s make products that spark joy. And not leave us frustrated after talking to them. No more “Can you repeat that?” or “I didn’t quite catch that.” I say goodbye chatbots, hello AI agents.
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Have a question? Shoot me an email at jurgen@cdisglobal.com.
As you may know, the difference between assistants and agents and the evolution to agents has been one of my favorite topics since 2018. I'd caution people to look at the definitions of agent anytime someone uses the term. As you mention, Altman is using it as a repositioning technique. The most basic form of a user agent is that it does something for you without your direct oversight. You may have initiated the activity, but the agent works on your behalf to fulfill a known or predicted goal. An assistant also does so, but operates on a request-response model and limited scope per task. An assistant can fetch things for you or execute tasks, but always has explicit instructions as opposed to standing instructions or capabilities. Many people like to call assistants agents, when they don't actually have agency.
Sometimes agents can be assistants. When R2D2 responds to Anakin Skywalker with information about a planet, it is acting as an assistant. When Luke Skywalker sends R2D2 into a enemy space ship and asks him to find a port where he can download a map of the ship and shut off access to all turbo lifts except for ones that will lead the team to the right location, it is acting as an agent, navigating a complex set of variables to achieve a state goal. There is another discussion here about imperative and declarable programming, but we can leave it as agency.
There are also system agents which work on behalf of systems.
Agents are hard. The broader the scope of responsibility, capability, and variability, the harder. I am a big believer in agents. Simple agents already exist and we will see more of them in 2024. However, the agents that are the extension of assistants will take longer to develop. The improvement of assistants will necessarily precede the improvement in agents. As least, that is the view from this corner.
Clippy is over here, like:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdqoNKCCt7A