AI is moving beyond text-based responses. Visual guidance technology is emerging that analyzes a user's screen in real-time to point out precise click locations.
Imagine this: you’ve just opened complex, newly introduced software at work, but you have no idea how to use it. You open a chatbot window, thinking, “Where on earth is this feature?” You ask for help, but the chatbot gives you a long-winded explanation in words alone. In the end, you find yourself switching back and forth between the chatbot’s instructions and the screen in front of you—and if you still don’t understand, you repeat the tedious process of taking screenshots and sending them. That kind, friendly experience where a friend would point at the screen and say, “Just press this button here,” has felt like something far removed from AI.
| But now, an era is coming where AI looks directly at our screens and provides precise directions. [Source: Show HN: Give your AI agent on-screen guides that show users where to click | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49627872) |
Why does this matter?
| Until now, the AI agents we’ve encountered have been largely confined to text-based conversational interfaces. Even AI embedded in enterprise software (SaaS, cloud-based software services) has struggled to fully understand the complex structure of the software, limiting its ability to actually automate user tasks or provide accurate guidance. [Source: Show HN: Give your AI agent on-screen guides that show users where to click | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49627872), Source: Show HN: Give your AI agent on-screen guides that show users … |
| This technical gap leads directly to reduced productivity. The time users waste struggling with chatbots because they don’t know how to use an app is time lost. The newly emerging ‘screen guide’ technology eliminates this unnecessary process, helping anyone quickly master even software they’ve encountered for the first time. [Source: Show HN: Ourguide – OS wide task guidance system that shows you where to click | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46769422) |
Easy to understand: The arrival of AI navigation
To put it simply, this technology is like the ‘real-time navigation’ in mapping apps we use when driving. The reason we don’t need to memorize a map when going to an unfamiliar place is that the navigation shows us on the screen with an arrow, “Turn right here.”
If the AI of the past was a driving instructor who only gave verbal directions like “Go right,” a secretary has now arrived that draws a large arrow on your smartphone screen, precisely pointing out, “Click this button.” Source: ScreenGuide AI - See Exactly What To Do On Any Screen, Source: AI Screen Share
This technology is a combination of ‘eyes’ that recognize the user’s screen in real-time and a ‘brain’ that judges what to do on that screen. Just like a human operating a computer, it identifies the location of buttons on the screen and, to achieve the user’s goal, immediately finds the next click point and displays it as an ‘Overlay’ that is transparently layered on the screen. Source: Phi-Ground: Improving how AI agents navigate screen interfaces
Current Status
Currently, many developers and companies are jumping into this field. Beyond simply guiding where to click, these so-called ‘Computer use agents’ aim to autonomously operate software interfaces in a human-like manner, such as clicking buttons, filling out forms, and navigating between apps. Source: Phi-Ground: Improving how AI agents navigate screen interfaces
| Of course, the technology is not yet perfect. There is still a possibility that the AI could lose its way or point to the wrong location in interfaces that are very complex or have never been encountered before. Currently, this technology remains at the stage of helping learn the usage of specific products or assisting with tasks in limited environments. It will take a little more time before it works perfectly in every piece of software we encounter. [Source: Show HN: Give your AI agent on-screen guides that show users where to click | Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49627872) |
What will happen in the future?
In the future, the era of installing complex software and looking up thick manuals will come to an end. Instead of wandering around wondering, “Where can I find this feature?”, we will resolve everything with a single statement: “AI, help me with this task.”
The era where users had to switch back and forth between chatbots and apps, taking and sending screenshots because they didn’t know how to use the app, will quickly become a relic of the past. Before long, AI will become a presence that provides natural and immediate help on our screens, as if a transparent hand were guiding our clicks. Instead of worrying about ‘how’ to handle technology, we will spend more creative time focusing on ‘what’ to build through technology.
MindTickleBytes AI Reporter’s View
When the Graphical User Interface (GUI) first appeared, people were able to use computers with just mouse clicks without memorizing complex commands. Today’s AI guide technology is like a second GUI revolution, in that AI has begun to understand the human way (clicks and visual exploration). We are opening an era where AI goes beyond entering commands and now views and interacts with software from the same ‘eye level’ as us.
References
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[Show HN: Give your AI agent on-screen guides that show users where to click Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49627872) - ScreenGuide AI - See Exactly What To Do On Any Screen
- AI Screen Share
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[Show HN: Ourguide – OS wide task guidance system that shows you where to click Hacker News](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46769422) - Phi-Ground: Improving how AI agents navigate screen interfaces
- Show HN: Give your AI agent on-screen guides that show users …
- AI writes code to build apps itself
- AI visually guides users by seeing their screen and indicating where to click
- AI automatically reads all of the user's emails
- Slow response speed
- The need to switch between chatbots and apps and take screenshots to ask questions
- Difficulty in reading text
- To work without an internet connection
- To interpret software interfaces like a human and autonomously perform tasks like button clicks
- To protect the user's personal information