Chatboxes have become the uber box for all things AI. The criticism of this blank box has been the cold start issue. New users don't know what to type. Designers shipping these product mostly got around this problem by offering suggested prompts to teach users about the possibilities.

The issue on the other end is that expert users end up creating their own library of prompts to copy and paste into the chatbox for repetitive tasks.

Sharang Sharma writing in UX Collective illustrates how these UIs can be smarter by being predictive of intent:

Contrary, Predictive UX points to an alternate approach. Instead of waiting for users to articulate every step, systems can anticipate intent based on behavior or common patterns as the user types. Apple Reminders suggests likely tasks as you type. Grammarly predicts errors and offers corrections inline. Gmail’s Smart Compose even predicts full phrases, reducing the friction of drafting entirely.

Sharma says that the goal of predictive UX is to “reduce time-to-value and reframe AI as an adaptive partner that anticipates user’s intent as you type.”

Imagine a little widget that appears within the chatbox as you type. Kind of a cool idea.