Introduction
How should AI responses appear? What controls belong in an action bar? When should you show thinking states? We analyzed 233 AI output instances across 12 enterprise systems to answer these questions with data.
Key findings:
- 0 of 6 standalone systems show AI avatars—yet 2 integrated systems do (for good reason)
- 100% of systems let users stop generation mid-response
- 50% use compact 4-5 icon action bars; 33% use expanded 6+ icon bars
- Split-view layouts are standard for code generation (71%) but rare for chat
- Version control exists in only 2 of 12 systems—both code generators