Prompt
Slow AI: designed friction
Find the moments in an AI flow where speed destroys trust or quality, and design deliberate pauses back in.
By Gus · founder — Agentic Design
The prompt
Here is an AI-driven flow: [FLOW]. Identify the moments where instant execution harms trust, quality, or safety. For the top 3: name the risk, design the specific friction (a pause, a preview, a confirmation, a reflection step), and state what the user gains from it. Then name every place where friction would only annoy — so we don't add it there. The goal is calibrated slowness, not universal slowness.
How to adapt
The default of AI products is faster. But for consequential actions, instant is the wrong feeling — it reads as careless. Slow AI is the deliberate insertion of friction, reflection, or confirmation where it protects the user or the outcome. This locates those moments and designs the pause.
How to adapt
Give it [FLOW] as a step list. The output ranks where friction pays for itself — resist adding it everywhere; the value is in choosing the two or three that matter.