The death of UI input
Building a new texture for software is not for the faint of heart
For decades, software has required a very specific kind of cooperation from its users: input. From text fields and buttons to complex forms and dropdown menus, the User Interface (UI) has always acted as the gateway for interacting with software. But something profound is changing. We’re witnessing the death of UI input, and what’s emerging in its place is not only groundbreaking—it’s creating a whole new texture for how we interact with technology.
This shift is powered by the rise of ambient computing and AI, where traditional inputs are no longer the primary mode of communication between humans and machines. Instead, software is becoming increasingly aware, responsive, and intelligent—eliminating the need for constant manual input. It’s about removing the friction of telling a machine what to do, allowing it to anticipate, act, and adapt in the background. This isn’t just an evolution of user interfaces; it’s a reinvention of how software fits into the fabric of our daily lives and businesses.
The Problem with Input
Let’s face it—manual input has always been a bottleneck. Whether it’s clicking buttons or typing commands, interacting with a UI requires users to interrupt their workflow to give the software precise instructions. In many ways, this has limited what software can achieve, especially at scale.
Think about the engineering teams building products today. They’re tasked with transforming huge volumes of unstructured data—emails, PDFs, spreadsheets, you name it—into something actionable. Yet, these processes often require users to input specific details, configure workflows, and manually oversee data flows. Every interaction, every click, represents an interruption. It’s an extra step that slows down business processes and places the burden of translation—between human and machine—squarely on the user.
But what if that burden didn’t exist? What if software understood the context of its environment and could take action without waiting for explicit input? This is where the death of UI input begins and ambient computing takes center stage.
What Is Ambient Computing?
Ambient computing is the idea that technology should exist quietly in the background, performing its tasks without needing direct engagement. It’s the polar opposite of today’s software, where interfaces are designed to constantly solicit and demand user attention. In an ambient world, software doesn’t ask for input. It just works.
Instead of asking users to submit forms or configure actions, ambient computing leverages AI-driven automation, sensors, and contextual awareness to handle these tasks autonomously. Think about it like this: Instead of a logistics team manually inputting data from dozens of daily load requests, an ambient computing system would ingest these requests, transform the data, route it to the appropriate departments, and confirm actions—all without requiring a human to ever touch a keyboard.
At bem, this is precisely the future we’re building: a world where software stops asking and starts doing.
A New Texture for Software
Building this new texture for software, however, is no easy task. It requires a shift in how we think about the relationship between humans and machines. UI-based input has been around for so long that it has shaped our expectations for how we interact with software. Removing input doesn’t just mean redesigning an interface—it means fundamentally rethinking what the software is capable of on its own.
Our vision at bem is to create AI components that transform and automate business processes seamlessly, without the need for constant user oversight. We’re talking about products that ingest unstructured data, automate decision-making, and execute tasks without being told how to do it. It’s software that is aware of your workflows, understands your business logic, and works invisibly in the background to make things happen.
We’ve built components like transform, which converts unstructured data into actionable formats, and route, which automatically sends that data to the correct destination—all without users needing to configure or tweak anything. And with our actions framework, we’re enabling the full automation of business processes, integrating fuzzy logic and human oversight only where necessary.
This new texture—this ambient computing fabric—is responsive, intelligent, and entirely frictionless.
The Challenges of Ambient Computing
Of course, creating this shift isn’t without its challenges. Building a world where software acts autonomously is not for the faint of heart. It requires a level of precision and reliability that UI-driven software does not. Without human input, the software needs to interpret vast amounts of data and context to make decisions autonomously, and that introduces layers of complexity in how it’s built and tested.
Trust is another big factor. People trust what they can control, and UIs have always provided that sense of control. Moving toward invisible, autonomous systems requires a mindset shift: trusting the software to do its job without constant oversight. That means creating AI components that are not only smart but also safe, testable, and observable. You must be able to peek under the hood at any time to see what’s happening.
The Future Without UI
The death of UI input doesn’t mean the death of interfaces altogether—far from it. What it does mean is that UIs are no longer the sole point of interaction. In an ambient world, UI is secondary. Software will engage users only when absolutely necessary, presenting them with the insights and decisions that matter most, while handling the rest autonomously.
Imagine a future where engineers, product teams, and entire companies focus on creative, high-level tasks because their software has already handled the grunt work of data routing, transformation, and automation. That’s the future we’re heading toward—a world where software acts on its own, where input is dead, and where ambient computing delivers on the promise that software should just work.
At bem, we believe that this future isn’t just a dream—it’s happening right now.
Join the Movement
We’re on a mission to redefine how products are built. We’re creating the tools that will power the next generation of AI-driven, ambient computing applications. Whether you're a startup or a Fortune 500, we invite you to join us in building a world where the software runs invisibly, allowing you to focus on what matters most—innovation and growth.