Every Product Team Has Decided the Missing Ingredient Was an Assistant Layer
The assistant has escaped the dedicated tool and spread across ordinary software like a well-funded personality trait.
A generation of software once tried to feel invisible. The new wave would prefer to be helpful on purpose at all times. The result is an assistant layer in places that previously managed just fine with a button and some self-respect.
This feels innovative in the demo because demos reward visible activity. In real life it can make the interface socially louder. The product is no longer only doing the task. It is also narrating the task, anticipating the task, and offering morale around the task.
Some of these features will be genuinely useful. The trouble is the industry has not yet learned to distinguish between useful assistance and a software package pacing the room because it recently discovered confidence.
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