The concept of a static interface where every user sees the same menu options, buttons, and layout, as determined by a UX designer in advance, is becoming obsolete. 2026 is the year we start the shift to Generative UI (GenUI).

In 2026 expect more “UI as output,” not “UI as container.” You’ll increasingly ask for outcomes — “plan my trip,” “audit this budget,” “design a landing page” — and receive a bespoke, interactive interface that’s generated, used, and then disappears.

By late 2026, the winning image tools will look less like chat and more like Photoshop with good usability: layers, selections, constraints, history, and exportable variants; all powered by a model that understands what each pixel is for.

I think that there's a part here though that still requires like a human in the loop to edit. You know, I think there's also a component around predictability that I think is really important.

The model chooses from a vocabulary. The application owns the vocabulary.

The future of generative UI is not arbitrary run-time code generation. It is controlled composition.

I think that there's a part here though that still requires like a human in the loop to edit. You know, I think there's also a component around predictability that I think is really important.

GenUI is still mostly in frameworks, agent products, and prototypes rather than daily consumer software.

The fact that AI now allows, like, all of that kind of just, like, if you just liked building things, right, if you like creating things for someone, which I always thought was, like, the. My favorite part of design, it's just the craziest time.

At past Configs, we’ve talked about AI lowering the floor and raising the ceiling. But while AI has lowered the floor, it has not raised the ceiling. Designers, creatives, builders: You will raise the ceiling.

I think again, it's just like really loudly advocating for the human designer. What does that mean? How can we help them with opportunities?

And so it's just kind of like, I think the role itself sort of stays the same. The tools change.