Agentic UX: designing interfaces that act for the user
When software can take actions on someone's behalf, the design job shifts from buttons to trust, control and consent.
Kumar Gaurav
Founder
Agentic UX is the design of interfaces where the software doesn't just respond, it acts — booking, drafting, buying, organising on the user's behalf. The hard part isn't the automation; it's keeping the person informed, in control, and able to undo. Good agentic design makes the agent's intent legible before it acts.
What makes an agent different from a feature?
A feature waits for input; an agent takes initiative toward a goal. That shift changes the contract. The user is no longer driving every step, so the interface has to show what the agent plans to do, what it's doing now, and what it did — in language a person can check at a glance.
How do you keep people in control?
Control is the whole game. Preview before commit, a clear way to stop, and an easy undo turn automation from a leap of faith into a collaboration.
- Show the plan before the action, not just the result.
- Keep a visible, one-tap way to pause or stop.
- Make every automated action reversible, or ask first when it isn't.
- Narrate progress, so a long task never feels like a frozen one.
When should an agent ask versus just act?
Act on the cheap and reversible; ask on the costly and permanent. Saving a draft is safe to automate; sending it to a client is not. Match the agent's autonomy to the cost of being wrong.
How we use it
We design the agent's visible reasoning first — plan, progress, provenance — then the automation behind it. Confidence comes from legibility, not from hiding the machinery.
Let's build
Have something worth making well?
Tell us what you're working on. We'll come back with how we'd approach it — and whether we're the right studio for it.