Why most AI products feel the same and what it actually takes to feel different
I have been thinking about this a lot lately: why do so many AI products feel interchangeable?
You open one, you open another. Different logo, different color scheme, same experience. A text box. A chat interface. Some version of "ask me anything." The wrapper changes but the feeling does not.
When we started building Murror, we almost fell into this trap. Our first instinct was to build the most capable AI assistant we could and then figure out the positioning later. The logic seemed sound: better technology equals better product.
But here is what we learned: technology is not the differentiator. The experience is.
Most AI products start from the model and work outward. They ask "what can this AI do?" and then build an interface around the answer. The result is a product that feels like a demo of capabilities rather than a tool designed for a specific human need.
What we found works better is starting from the person. Not "what can the AI do?" but "what does this person need to feel, understand, or accomplish in this moment?" That reframing changes everything. It changes the interface, the pacing, the tone, even when the AI chooses not to respond.
For Murror specifically, this meant building an AI that sometimes stays quiet instead of always having an answer. It meant designing interactions around emotional pacing rather than information delivery speed. It meant saying no to features that would make us more "capable" but less intentional.
The counterintuitive part is that doing less with AI often creates a more differentiated product than doing more. When you constrain the AI to serve a specific experience rather than showcasing general capabilities, you end up with something that actually feels like it was made for the user.
I think the next wave of AI products that break through will not be the most powerful ones. They will be the ones that feel the most purposeful.
What do you think? Are we heading toward a world where AI products differentiate on experience design rather than model capability?
Replies
How do you design for emotional pacing consistently?
What's the hardest part of saying no to features?
How do you validate emotional impact objectively?
Are most teams still starting from the model first?
I find the idea of doing less with AI quite interesting. It feels counterintuitive, but when I think about it, simpler tools are often the ones I keep using over time 👍
Murror
Thank you, Mukesh! You hit on something really important. The tools that stick around are rarely the flashiest ones — they are the ones that fit naturally into how you already think and work. That is exactly the mindset we keep coming back to with Murror: what would make someone feel understood, not just impressed? Appreciate you sharing that perspective.
Is this a long-term advantage or easy to copy