The Most Exciting Development in GenUI: Buttons and Checkboxes

Summary: AI chats generate simple UI elements to gather context, reduce typing and memory load, and produce more useful, personalized results.

In March 2024, Sarah Gibbons and I published one of the first formal definitions of generative UI (genUI). We distinguished genUI (real-time, AI-generated interfaces customized to individual users) from AI-assisted design (using AI to help designers build traditional interfaces faster). The key distinction is when and who benefits: AI-assisted design helps during development, but the end user encounters a traditional interface; with genUI, AI generates interface elements in real time and the end user's experience is what's being shaped.

We kept timelines vague because we didn't know when these interfaces would become reality. Two years later, true genUI is no longer purely theoretical. While there are a myriad of examples of experimental genUI right now, the most notable progress has happened within AI chat interfaces. Simple interactive elements — buttons, form fields, checkboxes — are starting to appear contextually within conversations, generated by the AI when it determines they'd be useful.

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