Ephemeral UI in AI-Generated, On-Demand Interfaces

Definition and Context of “Ephemeral UI” in AI-Driven Design

“Ephemeral UI” refers to user interfaces that are generated on the fly by intelligent systems and exist only temporarily to serve an immediate purpose.

Unlike traditional transient UI elements (e.g. modals, toasts, notifications) which are pre-designed but short-lived, these AI-driven ephemeral interfaces are dynamically created based on context and user needs, then disappear once their task is done.

In essence, the interface itself is on-demand and context-specific, often assembled by a generative AI agent at runtime.

For example, imagine asking an AI assistant for a specific tool (say, a one-time flight booking panel or a custom data visualization) and having a tailored UI appear briefly to fulfill that request, then vanish afterward .

This concept is gaining traction as a paradigm shift in how we might interact with software: interfaces become fluid, adaptive, and disposable rather than fixed screens or apps.

Importantly, this notion extends beyond simply hiding UI chrome when not needed — it implies AI creation of new UI elements or “micro-apps” on demand. Ephemeral UIs are hyper-contextual (built for one user’s momentary goal) and transient (destroyed when the goal is achieved).

The term “Ephemeral UI” has started appearing in design and technology discussions to describe this future of AI-assembled, just-in-time interfaces. It posits a world where you don’t navigate to apps; instead, the UI comes to you when needed, then disappears to eliminate clutter.

Emergence in Design Blogs and Thought Leadership

Over the last couple of years, design leaders and tech writers have begun using “ephemeral interface” terminology in exactly this AI-driven context. In mid-2023, UX leader Rachel Kobetz described the future of intelligent interfaces as “intelligent, contextual, and ephemeral” — meaning “just enough interface compiled in real-time, based on context and relevance. UI that appears when it’s needed and [is] hidden when it’s not.”.

This captures the essence of ephemeral UIs: minimal, on-demand UIs created in the moment. Similarly, a 2024 UX trends article by Kshitij Agrawal explicitly lists “Ephemeral Interfaces” as one of four key AI innovation trends of the 2030 horizon (alongside dynamic interfaces and others), suggesting that the idea of transient, context-generated UIs is on the radar of design futurists.

Multiple thought leaders have painted a picture of how such UIs might work. For instance, Hilal Koyuncu (former Google designer) introduced the concept in a 2025 post titled “What If Apps Didn’t Exist? Meet Ephemeral UI.” She envisions an interface paradigm where “UI appeared only when needed and disappeared after use.” In her examples, an AI agent could conjure a UI for a task like booking a flight — presenting options in a temporary interface — and then the UI “vanishes” once the booking is done.

Adjusting smart home settings might cause a contextual slider to materialize briefly, then fade away, instead of requiring the user to open a full app . Koyuncu emphasizes that this approach would eliminate the “endless menus” and app clutter users deal with today, providing “just interaction when needed, gone when not.” Her post also highlights benefits like improved accessibility (UIs generated in real-time could automatically tailor themselves to a user’s disability needs) and questions about branding (if an AI generates the UI on the fly, traditional app identity might give way to purely utility-driven design) . This is a clear description of ephemeral UIs as AI-driven, context-aware interfaces that live only long enough to complete the user’s intent.

Another explicit reference comes from Roy Bernhard in late 2024, who used the phrase “Ephemeral Interface” to discuss “disposable apps.” He describes a near-future scenario of “transient yet hyper-intentional tools brought to life by artificial intelligence.” In his view, AI agentic systems can “dynamically generate a functional app” whenever a user expresses a specific need, and these mini-apps exist only as long as required .

As Bernhard puts it, “It’s ephemeral, existing only as long as it’s useful, and disappears once its job is complete, leaving no clutter… no remnants of functionality you no longer require.” . This description reinforces that others in the industry are indeed using ephemeral to mean AI-created interfaces or apps that self-destruct when their purpose is fulfilled. Notably, Bernhard ties this concept back to an earlier idea of his from 2017 about ditching fixed UIs in favor of API-driven compositions — now made feasible by AI. The language he uses (disposable, transient, on-the-fly) closely matches the user’s context for Ephemeral UI.

Tech commentators on Substack have echoed these ideas. For example, writer Linus Ekenstam refers to “Ephemeral UI” in the context of the post-ChatGPT software era. He argues that most of today’s app interfaces sit idle (like parked cars) and could be replaced by on-demand interactions. Ekenstam points to a demo by developer Sean Grove, noting “at runtime we will have apps conjure from nothing and then simply fade away”, which is exactly the ephemeral UI philosophy.

Another author, Spencer Lee, discussing language models and UIs, predicted that “fully ephemeral UI” could be a superior approach in the future (with some challenges around accessibility to solve) . All these thought leadership pieces use “ephemeral” to describe interfaces generated in real time by AI and not meant to persist beyond the immediate context.

In short, within design and product strategy circles, Ephemeral UI is being talked about as a new pattern enabled by AI. It represents a shift from designing permanent screens to designing experiences that assemble and disassemble interfaces on demand.

Academic References to Ephemeral, AI-Generated UIs

Academic and research communities have also begun exploring the idea of AI-generated ephemeral interfaces (though often with different motivations). A notable example is a 2024 CHI paper (preprint) introducing Biscuit, a system that integrates Large Language Models into coding notebooks. Biscuit explicitly uses the term “ephemeral UIs” to describe the UI elements it generates on the fly as intermediate aids. The authors define their workflow as involving “ephemeral UIs — UI elements that are dynamically generated by LLMs and contextually integrated with the code context and user requests.”.

Rather than immediately producing code from a prompt, Biscuit’s LLM first creates a temporary graphical interface (like sliders, dropdowns, etc.) based on the user’s request and the current code, which the user can manipulate before final code is injected .

This ephemeral UI exists only during that intermediate step — it’s generated to scaffold the user’s input in a more intuitive way, and once the code is generated, the UI can be disposed. The researchers found this approach helps users better understand and guide AI-generated code .

Biscuit demonstrates a concrete implementation of ephemeral UIs: the interface is literally generated on demand by an AI (the LLM) and is transient. The paper’s language confirms the term’s use in this context — an “additional ephemeral UI step” is inserted between the user’s natural language prompt and the final output.

This shows that even in scholarly work, ephemeral UI is being adopted to mean dynamic, context-specific UI produced by AI. Furthermore, the authors situate this in an “emerging body of literature on LLM-generated UIs”, citing projects like DynaVis (which uses an LLM to generate custom visualization widgets) and LIDA (an interface for creating data visualizations via language).

This suggests the concept of UIs materializing via AI is an active research area. Although earlier HCI research used “ephemeral user interfaces” to explore physical materials (like soap bubbles, fog displays, or other temporary media for interaction), the current usage in academic circles has expanded to AI-driven software interfaces rather than just novel materials.

In other words, the ephemerality aspect (transience) remains, but now the focus is on ephemeral software UI that is generated and removed by an AI agent.

Developer Community Demos and Discussions

In developer communities, the idea of AI-created ephemeral interfaces is also gaining momentum, sometimes under different names like “single-use apps” or “on-the-fly UIs.” Developer Sean Grove has been a prominent experimenter in this space. He created a demo/project called Conjure, which illustrates UIs that generate themselves as needed. Grove describes Conjure’s paradigm as UIs that are “ephemeral, on-demand, iterable programs that appear out of nowhere to be used, then disappear when they’re no longer needed.”.

In his envisioned future of UI development, perhaps only a small portion of interfaces are hand-built; a large percentage could be handled by conversational or generative systems that spin up UIs for the “long tail” of specific tasks . This is a direct practical example of ephemeral UI philosophy from a developer’s perspective — essentially treating UI as a temporary runtime artifact generated by code (or by AI) to solve a user’s query, then dissolving. Grove’s demo and ideas have been circulated on platforms like YouTube and Twitter, and they were cited by others as proof-of-concept for ephemeral UIs .

The term “ephemeral UI” itself has been picked up by developers discussing these concepts. A Medium article in 2023 on the future of software design asked whether LLMs could “build dynamic, ephemeral GUIs…replacing the bloat” in traditional software . It even pointed readers to an “ephemeral UI” demo from Sean Grove as an illustration.

This shows that by early 2023, people in tech were already using the exact phrase “ephemeral UI” in reference to AI-generated interfaces, influenced by demos like Grove’s. Additionally, conversations on social media reinforce this usage: one developer on Twitter (X) remarked about “AI-generated ad-hoc user interfaces”, saying “I think I prefer ‘ephemeral UI’ to ‘dynamic UI’” as the term for this concept .

This indicates that within the developer community, “ephemeral UI” is recognized and even preferred by some as the label for UIs that an AI summons on demand. In open-source contexts, we also see related ideas; for example, frameworks and discussions about “single-use software” or “ephemeral apps” mirror the same notion (often inspired by the advent of GPT-4’s capabilities to generate code and UIs at runtime).

Sources

• Koyuncu, H. (2025). What If Apps Didn’t Exist? Meet Ephemeral UI. (LinkedIn post) — Describes UIs that “dynamically generate based on context” and disappear after use .

• Kobetz, R. (2023). Decoding The Future: The Evolution Of Intelligent Interfaces. — Discusses future interfaces that are “compiled in real-time, based on context… UI that appears when needed and hidden when not,” calling them intelligent, contextual, and ephemeral .

• Bernhard, R. (2024). The Ephemeral Interface: How AI Agents Are Redefining Our Digital Lives. — Introduces “disposable apps” as “transient yet hyper-intentional tools” created by AI agents on demand (ephemeral apps/interfaces) .

• Agrawal, K. (2024). The Next Big AI-UX Trend — It’s Not Conversational UI. — Identifies “Ephemeral Interfaces” as one of four key AI UX trends, indicating industry awareness of the term .

• Ekenstam, L. (2023). The Post-GPT Software Era. — Op-ed noting “ephemeral UI” where apps are conjured at runtime and then “fade away”, citing Sean Grove’s demo .

• Peterson, D. (2023). LLMs and the Future of Customer-Built Software Design. — Speculates that LLMs could build “dynamic, ephemeral GUIs” to reduce software bloat, referencing an “ephemeral UI” demo by Sean Grove.

• Biscuit Project (CHI 2024) — Research prototype inserting an “ephemeral UI step” in code generation; defines ephemeral UIs as UI elements “dynamically generated by LLMs” based on user context .

• Grove, S. (2023). Conjure UI Demo — Demonstrates “ephemeral, on-demand… UIs” that appear for a task and vanish when not needed ; described as a new paradigm for UI development.

• Developer discussion on X (2023) — Noted preference for the term “ephemeral UI” to describe AI-generated ad-hoc interfaces over other terms , indicating community adoption.