The last interface

"The Citrini Report follows AI's current trajectory and projects that 2028 will bring a self-inflicted corporate doom loop: AI makes software so cheap to build that SaaS companies will cannibalise themselves out of business. The report is a deliberately provocative wake-up call, taking an extreme scenario and playing it out to its logical conclusion."

"Software we lease but never own (a market now worth $390 billion globally and growing), are typically customised to support enterprise systems and workflows at scale. Although it's unlikely any organisation would ever use anything close to all the features on offer. We are presented with a bloated, feature-rich product for which we pay a premium."

"Over time, the product interfaces have largely grown more complex, tight delivery timelines compound UX debt, designers sweep new features into overflow menus, progressive disclosure is overutilised to nest and conceal functions; the mental model for these products shifts toward being product-centric rather than user-centric."

The Citrini Report projects that AI advancement will create a corporate doom loop by 2028, making software so cheap to build that SaaS companies will cannibalize themselves. Beyond this macro-economic threat lies a more fundamental disruption: the dismantling of user interfaces embedded in SaaS products like Jira, Salesforce, and Slack. These leased software solutions, worth $390 billion globally, succeed through customer lock-in and enterprise inertia. Over time, interfaces have become increasingly complex, with features nested in overflow menus and progressive disclosure overutilizing functionality. Product-centric design has replaced user-centric approaches, creating cognitive burden for knowledge workers who navigate these bloated, feature-rich offerings daily.

Read at Medium