For 20 years, building software meant designing interfaces for humans. Fixed UX, narrow features, thin data, static APIs. The agent era inverts every axis.
The Great Interface Inversion — Animated Explainer
1. Fixed UX → Dynamic UX One user type, one fixed path becomes human, agent, multi-agent, overlay — adapting to the consumer at runtime. “6 months to learn a new system” becomes irrelevant when you can’t predict who or what consumes it.
2. Narrow Features → Open-Ended Interface Bounded capabilities behind a wall. Agents compose capabilities unpredictably — CRM + pricing API + market feed in one session. If you only expose pre-designed features, you’re invisible.
3. Thin Data Layer → Fat Data Layer (Most consequential shift) Smart UI on dumb data becomes fat data carrying the intelligence. Entities, relationships, context, provenance. Fat data is mandatory when the interface IS the data.
4. Static API Endpoint → Dynamic API Endpoint Fixed contracts designed for human developers become MCP servers where agents discover, compose, and adapt dynamically. A negotiation protocol, not a fixed contract.
The Fundamental Shift
From now on, it means designing data and APIs for agents — and letting the interface emerge.
Gennaro is the creator of FourWeekMBA, which reached about four million business people, comprising C-level executives, investors, analysts, product managers, and aspiring digital entrepreneurs in 2022 alone | He is also Director of Sales for a high-tech scaleup in the AI Industry | In 2012, Gennaro earned an International MBA with emphasis on Corporate Finance and Business Strategy.
