Case for Invisible AI

The Problem with Current AI Integration

I'm tired of having AI shoved in my face almost everywhere I look. And I'm betting you are too.

Here's the thing - do we need AI in our businesses? Absolutely yes, 100% yes. If you're not utilizing AI in your workflow one way or another, you will be left behind. Whether you run a business, you're a freelancer, an agency, or an employee, AI is an inevitable part of your tool set. In a year or two, not knowing how to use AI will be like not knowing how to use Microsoft Word, email, or your calendar today. It's an essential tool.

But that's exactly my point - it's a tool. And while people use tools in their jobs, they don't want to interact with tools when they just want to get something done.

Most companies today are integrating AI as this front-and-center feature. You open any corporate tool or SaaS product, and boom - there's a chat window. AI this, AI that. Every single platform has slapped on an AI badge like it's some kind of trophy. But this approach fundamentally misunderstands what users actually want, and often represents the wrong way to integrate AI in business.

We want to see AI, but we don't want to see AI.

Let me explain. We want the benefits - smarter recommendations, automated tasks, better insights. But we don't want to be forced into yet another chat conversation every time we need something done. Business owners and product managers are already juggling countless tools and interfaces. The last thing they need is another chatbot asking "How can I help you today?"

Google Got It Right From Day One

When ChatGPT came out, it gave us something phenomenal - the ability to tinker with technology in plain language, to have a conversation with a computer. And for technical people like many of us, it was monumental. We haven't looked back.

But here's what most developers miss: average users don't want to chat with their tools.

As bizarre and crazy as it might sound to founders and developers, the average business owner or manager doesn't want another conversation. They want the tool to do the job.

Google understood this from the beginning. When you search Google, nowhere does it announce "AI will find the best matching website for your query." When Google shows you an ad, it doesn't proclaim "AI matched this ad to your preferences." Your phone dims the screen based on ambient light without broadcasting "dimmed with AI." When we use GPS to navigate from point A to point B, Google Maps doesn't say "navigation provided by AI" at the bottom.

These examples reveal what smart AI integration actually looks like: you don't see it, but you benefit from it. The intelligence works behind the scenes, making your experience smoother, faster, and more intuitive - without demanding your attention or forcing you to learn a new interface.

The Fundamental Problem with Chat-Based AI

When we talk to ChatGPT, we tell the model to think, then give us output, then we decide if we like it or not, then tell it to think more. We're constantly directing AI to do the thinking, to write, to create images. We're the guides, we're the directors.

But let me break it down for you: many people don't want to direct anything. They can't direct their own thought patterns effectively, yet we expect them to successfully direct a computer's reasoning process.

The way AI has been integrated in most software right now is kind of blind and dumb. They just throw in a chat window into the tool. Like, oh my god, are you serious? We want something else entirely.

As consumers - and I'm speaking as a hypothetical consumer here - we want AI to think for us, not the other way around. I want to see a button, snap a photo, upload a few files, or maybe say what I want, and have it deliver the end result. I don't want to tinker. I don't want to prompt. I don't want to go back and forth or argue with it.

I want it to get shit done.

What Users Actually Want

I upload a photo, it tells me what I need to know. I upload files, it does what it needs to do. For that to work, software needs to be primed for solving specific problems. ChatGPT is generic - I want specific.

When we have to make choices through this journey, we want the system to give us those choices. We don't want to guess. ChatGPT sometimes does this - "would you like me to explain this?" or "would you like more details?" - but most chat interfaces don't.

Here's what typically happens: you say "come up with a marketing plan for my business," and it spits out completely generic garbage. Then you have to guide it - "can you go in depth on this, can you expand on that."

What we actually want is this: I push a button, and it asks me the questions it needs to generate the plan. The AI needs to engage me and give me directions on what I need to do. Not us directing the chat, but the chat directing us to solve my problem.

It should ask: "Can you tell me what your business does?" And if I say "I don't know what my target audience is," it responds with "All right, let's figure this out together."

I want my AI to ask me questions. ChatGPT doesn't do that natively.

The Blank Screen Problem

Oftentimes, we don't want to stare at a blank screen. You open ChatGPT, you want to get something done, you're looking at that prompt window thinking "How do I formulate this? What do I type here?"

People don't want to do that. They want a template, a jump start, a push button to get started.

I want to open a tool and have it say "Would you like to do this?" Without me prompting, without me triggering it. Just start with a prompt to me. "Would you like me to give you a report on today's sales?" Yeah. "Would you like me to outline unusual sales?" Perfect.

Some argue that chatbots are actually the real heroes here - that they force explicit communication that catches errors and builds user trust. And there's some truth to that. Dialogue can foster better learning loops than silent assumptions.

But the solution isn't choosing between invisible AI and chatbots. It's about finding the right balance - AI that initiates helpful conversations without being annoying, that works in the background without being creepy, that guides without overwhelming.

Don't Hide AI Completely Either

We need to address ethics in AI. It's inevitable this conversation will happen in tech and the sooner your business adopts eithical use of AI - the less likely you would be to deal with PR nightmares. Espeically if you're in consumer-facing business, or B2C (here's why I chose B2B over B2C as a solo founder).

Look, I'm not saying we should make AI completely invisible. We need some transparency.

Here's what I mean: if your AI is doing stuff behind the scenes, users need to know what's happening. Be clear about it. Don't turn your software into spyware that guesses what people want without telling them, or uses dark patterns to get people to do things. That's creepy, and frankly, it's bad business. Users should be aware that there is algorithmically-driven decision-making happening on the backend.

And here's the other thing - when you hide how your AI works, you're also hiding its biases. Every AI system has them. If users can't see how decisions are being made, they can't call you out when your software screws up or treats people unfairly.

The sweet spot? AI that works in the background but doesn't hide what it's doing.

You can obscure the systems and process to protect your intellectual property, but you should openly publish prompts or prompts guidelines you're using or allow users to adjust them.

I understand that this is difficult to do, especially, if you believe "prompt is the moat" - it's not.

And while Google does not publish how Page Ranking works, they do publish "best practices" for SEO and what criteria it their search engine uses to rank pages.

Key Takeaways for Developers

Building AI-powered products requires a fundamental shift - from developer logic to user psychology. Here are the essential principles:

Think like your users, not like a developer. The biggest mistake technical teams make is designing systems based on what seems logical from an engineering standpoint. Your average user doesn't care about your elegant architecture. They think in terms of their immediate needs and pain points.

Lead with contextual prompts instead of empty chat boxes. Rather than presenting users with a blank interface, proactively suggest relevant actions. Frame these as helpful questions: "Would you like to have XYZ?" This reduces cognitive load and guides users toward valuable outcomes.

Don't lead with AI in your marketing. Google sold search to billions of users worldwide for decades without mentioning AI anywhere on their homepage. Your SaaS or startup doesn't need "AI-powered" as its primary value proposition either. Focus on the problems you solve and the outcomes you deliver.

Combat chat fatigue by making AI proactive. We inevitably will have chat fatigue, just like we got chat fatigue in social media. People will get sick and tired of seeing chat everywhere. We don't want to chat to things. We want AI to initiate the conversation, to prompt us with what it thinks we need, and to guide us to the solution we want. This is particularly important because AI is making us dumber when we over-rely on it for thinking.

The technology should work for us - not the other way around. Build systems that gear toward user experience from the user's perspective, not from what we think would be logical as developers or founders. Average typical users think in terms of their needs. We need to guess what the user might need and present them with that option.

If I see one more AI chat window in one more SaaS, I'm going to lose it. And I'm betting your users feel the same way.