Most AI interfaces I've used lately are just: Chat. Table. Canvas. Terminal. That's it.
We used to build elaborate interfaces. Dozens of screens. Nested menus. Modals stacked on modals. Every feature demanded a button. Every workflow required a wizard. The interface was the product.
AI is changing this. Not by making things easier, but by moving the complexity somewhere else.
The Four Patterns
Chat handles conversation. Tables handle data. Canvas handles creation. Terminal handles power users. Pick one. Maybe two. The elaborate screen hierarchies are disappearing.
Why? Because when AI does the work, the interface just needs to get out of the way. You don't need a screen for every edge case when the model can figure it out from context. The UI becomes a thin layer. Input on one side. Output on the other.
Different, Not Easier
This doesn't make the work easier. It makes it different.
The old questions were about navigation. Where does this button go? How many clicks to complete a task? What happens when the user gets lost?
The new questions are about trust. How do you show someone what the AI is doing? How do you let them correct it when it's wrong? How do you make a blank input feel approachable instead of paralyzing?
These are hard problems. Harder, maybe, because we don't have patterns for them yet. The screens got simpler. The thinking didn't.