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What Is an AI Native Product?

November 30, 2025

Here's how I'm thinking about it:

When a product exposes its core functionality as foundational primitives that an LLM with tools can use.

Let's break that down a bit.

We're used to static interfaces with controls, filters, sub-menus, screens, etc. The patterns are well established.

Those products are built for you - the user.

But despite all the optimization, sometimes these products are a huge pain! There might be too many records to digest... it might be confusing to set up a certain feature... it takes too many clicks to get somewhere.

Why not let the AI do that work instead?

An AI native product takes the core functionality and exposes it as reusable functions. Then an agent - an LLM with tools - can use the core functionality on your behalf.

You tell it what you want to do, usually via a chat interface, and it does it for you.

Here are some examples:

Writing code

Old way (Vim, Emacs):

  • You read all the files to understand how the app works.
  • You write all the code yourself.

AI native way (Cursor, Claude Code):

  • You ask the agent how the app works, it does research, and tells you the findings.
  • You tell the agent what code you want, it does the initial draft, and you fix/polish it.

Searching company documents

Old way (Google Drive):

  • Find documents by keyword search
  • Read them one by one

AI native way (Notion):

  • Tell the agent what you want to find out. It reads hundreds of docs and tells you what it learned. It includes links for the most relevant docs to read.

Making presentations

Old way (Powerpoint):

  • Try to find an existing template
  • Fill in content
  • Struggle with clunky design and animations

AI native way (Gamma):

  • Tell the agent what you want to build. It adapts a template to your use case, builds a slide outline, prefills content, and makes animations.

The important thing with AI native products is that you are still in the driver's seat. And you can still use the static interface if you want. In fact often it's quicker than asking the agent.

But otherwise, you say what you want to get done, and the product does it for you.

That's what an AI native product is.