Everything has a chat interface now. Customer support, banking, ordering food, filing taxes. I am waiting for my shower to ask "how can I help you today?"
I tried to change my flight the other day. Instead of a button that says "Change Flight" I got a chatbot named Maya who asked me how my day was going. Maya, my day is going terribly, that is why I am changing my flight. Give me the button and skip the small talk.
Putting a chat where a form would do is a way of saying "we could not design this screen properly, so type sentences at a computer like it is 1983." For a task like this we had buttons, dropdowns and forms that were structured and predictable. You could select what you wanted and submit it.
Now I have to negotiate with a text box. "I would like to cancel my subscription." "I am sorry to hear that! Can you tell me why?" No, just cancel it. "Let me transfer you to our retention specialist." There is no specialist. You are a language model. I am arguing with a transformer over a plan that costs 29 reais a month.
I build an LLM agent for patients at work, so I am not against chat. Chat wins when the person does not know what to ask for or the request is ambiguous (triage, an open question). It loses when the action is known and has a fixed shape (changing a flight, canceling a subscription): there a button is faster, more predictable and easier to test. Use the conversation to find out what the person wants and the form to do it.
Your toaster will have a chat interface soon. "Hey, I would like my bread toasted." "Sure! How toasted?" "Medium." "Great choice! Did you know we also offer bagel mode?" Just toast the bread.