> "The ideal form of the flight booking interaction is that it's basically a computerized travel agent. So it could theoretically ask questions or listen to your objections and refine the request that way."
And that is startlingly worse as a UX than the status quo.
An agent can apply some contextual filtering to improve the initial choices offered to the user - but they can do that in a GUI as well, and I would strongly argue that's better served in a GUI than via voice.
"Given your check-in time and transit from the airport, I think the following 3 flights make sense... [painstakingly list all 3 flights verbally]."
"Oh ok uh can you say the second one again? Was that out of JFK or Newark?"
... etc. Whereas a GUI is easy to parse and presents choices side-by-side in a way that's easy to compare.
This is the dissembling I'm talking about when it comes to some LLM proponents - the idea that the user having to perceive, compare, and analyze information just goes away, poof because the agent will just... make it no longer necessary.
It's a fundamental misunderstanding of these domains and use cases.
I'll generalize my prediction a bit more: an intelligent agent applying its contextual knowledge to a GUI is likely going to be overwhelmingly better as a UX than an intelligent agent that largely interacts verbally.
And that is startlingly worse as a UX than the status quo.
An agent can apply some contextual filtering to improve the initial choices offered to the user - but they can do that in a GUI as well, and I would strongly argue that's better served in a GUI than via voice.
"Given your check-in time and transit from the airport, I think the following 3 flights make sense... [painstakingly list all 3 flights verbally]."
"Oh ok uh can you say the second one again? Was that out of JFK or Newark?"
... etc. Whereas a GUI is easy to parse and presents choices side-by-side in a way that's easy to compare.
This is the dissembling I'm talking about when it comes to some LLM proponents - the idea that the user having to perceive, compare, and analyze information just goes away, poof because the agent will just... make it no longer necessary.
It's a fundamental misunderstanding of these domains and use cases.
I'll generalize my prediction a bit more: an intelligent agent applying its contextual knowledge to a GUI is likely going to be overwhelmingly better as a UX than an intelligent agent that largely interacts verbally.