Generative UI: When Interfaces Understand You

The Interface Problem No One Talks About

Every time you open a business tool, you're doing invisible work.

You're filtering. You're scanning. You're mentally mapping: Where's the thing I need? What's relevant right now? What can I ignore?

Traditional interfaces don't help with this. They show you everything, all the time, in the same way, regardless of context. A CRM record looks the same whether you're prepping for a critical renewal call or just logging a quick note.

That's not efficiency. That's cognitive overhead masquerading as features.

What Is Generative UI?

Generative UI is a fundamental shift in how interfaces work. Instead of static layouts designed for the average user, generative interfaces are created dynamically - shaped by AI to match the specific context, task, and user in front of them.

Think of it this way:

• Static UI: One layout fits all. You adapt to the software.
• Generative UI: The interface adapts to you - your role, your workflow, your current moment.

This isn't just personalization (changing colors or hiding fields). It's the interface itself being generated based on what matters right now.

Why This Matters for Business Software

Consumer apps have trained us to expect intelligent experiences. Netflix knows what to recommend. Google knows what you meant to type. Your phone knows to surface relevant apps based on time and location.

Business software? Still stuck in 2010.

The average B2B tool presents the same dense forms, the same navigation, the same dashboards - regardless of whether you're a sales rep, an account manager, or a founder. Regardless of whether you're in crisis mode or coasting.

Generative UI changes this by making three things possible:

1) Context-Aware Layouts

Imagine opening a customer record before a renewal call. Instead of seeing every field ever created, the interface surfaces:

• Recent communications
• Open issues or risks
• Contract timeline
• Key contacts and their sentiment

The AI understands the moment and reshapes the view accordingly. Not because you built a custom dashboard - but because the system understands what you're doing.

2) Adaptive Information Density

Some tasks need depth. Some need speed.

Generative UI can compress or expand based on intent. A quick task update? Minimal interface, fast action. Strategic planning session? Rich context, full history, related records surfaced automatically.

The interface breathes with your work rhythm.

3) Proactive Surfaces

Instead of waiting for you to navigate somewhere, generative interfaces can push relevant information to you. Risks that need attention. Follow-ups that are overdue. Changes in an account that signal opportunity or concern.

The system stops being a filing cabinet and starts being a collaborator.

The Technology Enabling This Shift

Several converging capabilities make Generative UI possible now:

• LLMs and reasoning models that can interpret context and intent
• Unified data graphs where relationships between entities are explicit and traversable
• Component-based UI architectures that can be composed dynamically
• Real-time inference that's fast enough to feel instantaneous

But technology alone isn't enough. The harder work is designing systems where the AI has enough context to make good decisions - and where users trust the interface to help rather than confuse.

The Trust Question

Here's where many Generative UI experiments fail: they optimize for novelty instead of trust.

If the interface changes unpredictably, users lose orientation. If AI surfaces the wrong thing at the wrong time, it erodes confidence. If personalization feels like surveillance, people disengage.

The goal isn't to surprise users with how clever the interface is. It's to reduce friction so naturally that they barely notice - they just get more done with less effort.

That means:

• Transparency: Users should understand why the interface looks the way it does
• Override controls: AI suggestions, not AI mandates
• Consistency in core patterns: Generative doesn't mean chaotic
• Progressive adaptation: Learn from behavior, don't assume from day one

What We're Building

At Coherence, Generative UI isn't a feature - it's foundational to how we think about the product.

When you're looking at a record, the interface should emphasize what's relevant to your role, your relationship with that entity, and your current task. When you're in an email, context should appear without you hunting for it. When something changes that affects your work, the system should surface it proactively.

This is only possible because we've built on a unified business graph - where relationships, communications, tasks, and custom objects are connected. Without that foundation, AI has nothing meaningful to reason over.

The interface becomes intelligent because the data model is designed for intelligence.

The Future Isn't One Interface

Here's the mental model shift that matters: we're moving from "the interface" to "interfaces" - plural, dynamic, generated.

The same underlying data and logic can manifest differently based on:

• Device (desktop depth vs. mobile focus)
• Role (executive summary vs. operational detail)
• Moment (urgent vs. exploratory vs. routine)
• Preference (visual vs. text-heavy vs. action-oriented)

The interface becomes a layer that AI renders, not a fixed artifact that designers ship once and maintain forever.

Getting There Incrementally

This vision doesn't require rebuilding everything overnight. Practical Generative UI starts with:

1. Smart defaults: AI-informed starting points that users can adjust
2. Contextual emphasis: Highlighting what matters based on current state
3. Dynamic filtering: Reducing noise automatically, with transparency
4. Proactive suggestions: Surfacing next actions and relevant context

Each step reduces cognitive load. Each step builds trust. And over time, the interface evolves from a tool you operate to a surface that works with you.

The Bigger Picture

Generative UI isn't about flashy demos or replacing designers with prompts. It's about a more humane relationship with software.

Business tools have become cognitively expensive. Every tab, every form, every dashboard adds to the mental overhead of just doing your job. The promise of AI-native software isn't automation for its own sake - it's reducing that overhead so dramatically that work feels lighter.

When the interface understands you, you stop fighting the software and start focusing on what actually matters: the work, the relationships, the decisions.

That's the future we're building toward.