AI First: Rethinking Software Architecture for the Age of Artificial Intelligence

What does it really mean to be AI First? Behind this expression lies much more than a simple technological slogan. Being AI First means accepting to question how we design and use software. It's about rethinking interfaces, processes, and even the notion of user as we know it today.

The Historical Role of User Interfaces

For decades, user interfaces have been designed for one specific reason: to structure information input. They serve to guide humans through forms, screens, and steps to enable the transition of data from one state to another, while respecting predefined business rules. In other words, our software is built around the idea that humans must be framed, corrected, and guided for processes to work correctly.

But this approach relies on a fundamental constraint: the human.

Users don't always have the interest, time, or rigor needed to perfectly follow complex rules. If an interface isn't intuitive enough, if a validation is missing, or if a process is too demanding, data becomes incomplete, incorrect, or poorly structured. That's why we invest so much effort in building screens that are clearer, more ergonomic, and more constraining: to compensate for the natural limitations of the user.

Artificial Intelligence: A Paradigm Shift

Artificial intelligence completely changes this equation.

An AI doesn't need a user-friendly interface. It has no frustration, no fatigue, and no lack of attention. When we impose rules on it, it follows them. When we provide it with tools, it uses them. And if a tool doesn't work the first time, it can retry indefinitely, rephrase its request, look for another approach, or persist until it obtains the expected result.

In a truly AI First world, current interfaces become largely superfluous.

They are no longer the main entry point to the system. The processes themselves can be abstracted, exposed as tools and APIs, directly usable by intelligent agents capable of understanding intent, orchestrating necessary actions, and managing information persistence without human intervention.

Rigor as a Fundamental Requirement

This, however, implies a fundamental requirement: rigor.

Being AI First demands increased discipline in implementing business rules at the very core of software. Processes must be clearly defined, executed deterministically, and exposed consistently to be usable by both humans and artificial intelligence.

A truly AI First system is not a system designed only for AI, but a system sufficiently well-structured that both can naturally collaborate within it.

Rules then become the cornerstone of software architecture. They are no longer buried in interfaces but formalized as services, tools, and reliable mechanisms that AI can use directly. This rigor benefits everyone: more robust processes, improved data quality, and much deeper automation than traditional approaches allowed.

A Concrete Example: School Enrollment

Let's take an everyday example: enrolling your child in school. Today, we're forced to use an online form. Why? Simply because it's the only way we have to enter information into the system. We must go to a screen, open a form, and manually enter information that belongs to us and is relevant to the system.

We probably already have this information somewhere: in a OneNote, in an email, on our phone. If we don't know it by heart, there's surely a government service capable of providing it to us officially.

In an AI First world, the process would be radically different.

We would simply say: "Alexa, enroll my child in school." The personal assistant would then use a tool provided by the school service center to proceed with enrollment. This tool would require specific information.

The assistant, relentlessly, would retrieve this information from the sources it has access to:

Office 365 to find personal documents
Government services already authenticated (birth certificate, proof of residence)
Email for previous confirmations
Calendar for availability

It would reuse these tools to gather the necessary information, then use the enrollment tool to complete the process.

The outcome: no user interface, no manual validation, no human intervention. Only rules validated by the tools and legitimate information sources, with user confirmation only in case of ambiguity.

This example perfectly illustrates what it means to be AI First: transforming interface-centered processes into capability-centered processes.

From Software-as-Destination to Capability Provider

Another way to understand this fundamental shift:

In the traditional model, the purpose of software is to solve a specific business problem for an end user. Software is a destination: users go there to accomplish a specific task.

In an AI First world, the fundamental purpose changes radically. Software is no longer a destination, but a capability provider in an orchestration ecosystem.

Traditional Model

📐 Software owns the complete workflow: all the end-to-end logic
👤 Users adapt to the software: they learn its screens, processes, and constraints
🎯 Value = facilitating ONE specific task: optimization of an isolated process

AI First Model

⚙️ Software exposes atomic capabilities: precise, well-defined, reusable functions
🤖 AI composes these capabilities into a larger workflow: intelligent orchestration of multiple services
🌐 Value = being a reliable participant in an ecosystem: interoperability and collaboration

AI First software no longer tries to do everything. It tries to do its part well in an ensemble orchestrated by artificial intelligence.

This transformation requires a complete redesign of software architecture: from self-sufficient monoliths to interoperable components, from rigid workflows to composable capabilities.

Our Vision: Three Pillars for the AI First Era

It's with this vision that we're evolving our offering.

Foundation: Unifying Humans and AI

We're launching a new version of Foundation, a platform redesigned to enable the publication of interfaces for both humans and artificial intelligences. Rather than building two parallel worlds, Foundation unifies access to features and data so that the same software can be used naturally by traditional users or by intelligent agents.

Forge: Rapid and Accessible Development

In parallel, we're announcing Forge, a new product that radically transforms how applications are created. Forge enables rapid generation, at a fraction of the usual cost, of complete software solutions that would have previously required months of work and significant budgets. Where traditional development imposes long and costly cycles, Forge brings speed, flexibility, and efficiency.

Cognito: A Framework for Agentics

Finally, we're introducing Cognito, an agentic framework designed to facilitate the integration of artificial intelligence into modern software. Cognito handles model management, agent definition, tool orchestration, and implementation of the skills necessary for their operation. It provides a structured framework for building truly AI-oriented systems capable of executing complex tasks autonomously and reliably.

These three initiatives rest on the same conviction: the future of software will not be centered on screens, but on capabilities.

Beyond Interfaces: The Future of Capabilities

Being AI First is therefore not simply adding a layer of artificial intelligence to existing software. It's rethinking the very way these software systems function. It's imagining a future where the user interface is no longer the center of the system, but one option among others. A future where data transition, validation, and process execution are handled by equipped intelligent agents.

We're entering an era where the real question is no longer: how do we make our screens more intuitive?
The question becomes: how do we make our systems directly usable by AI?

That's what it means to be AI First.