Designing AI-Powered Applications People Actually Trust

A model can be accurate and still be rejected by its users. Whether people act on an AI-generated answer is decided almost entirely by the interface around it.

Disclose that it is generated

Users who discover on their own that a machine wrote something stop trusting the entire product. Labelling generated content costs nothing and preserves credibility.

Show your working

• Cite the document, record or field the answer came from
• Link straight to the source so it can be checked in one click
• Indicate uncertainty plainly instead of presenting every answer with equal confidence

Make correction the fastest path

If fixing a wrong answer takes longer than doing the task manually, people stop using the feature. Inline editing with a single confirmation keeps them in the loop and generates the feedback that improves the system.

Fail visibly and safely

When confidence is low, say so and hand control back. A feature that admits uncertainty is trusted far more than one that is confidently wrong once.