We’ve had over 20 years of Google’s influence to teach us to rely on a search box for the answers to our queries. But we sense a shift—people are no longer satisfied with software giving them page upon page of loosely related results. Instead, there is a desire to use command bars to take direct action by using text to prompt AI to generate outputs for us.

Prompt-driven design is where software uses an AI-powered command bar as either the primary tool of navigation or output. We find it so exciting because it can make apps more accessible, more powerful, and almost universally applicable.

While text will continue to be the primary way we interact with prompt-driven design for many users, we see text as the precursor to voice-based prompts for many use cases

Some geographies, like India, already use voice to search at a much higher rate than other countries. Just as QR codes took a while to spread to more Western countries, we see voice prompts following a similar path of adoption.

As people get more comfortable with AI, working with these models will become second nature just as using touchscreens feels natural today.

It’s important to note that prompt-driven design is a spectrum; it can be employed as a navigational UX or it can be core to the output as it often is with AI-powered products that generate results.

Prompt-driven design allows us to escape the crutches of clicking or tapping and takes us to the best place possible: intent.