To me natural language interfaces are like the mouse-driven menu vs terminal interpreter. They allow good discoverability in systems that we don't master at the cost of efficiency.
As always, good UI allows for using multiple modalities.
As always, good UI allows for using multiple modalities.
What chat interfaces have over CLIs is good robustness. You can word your request in lots of different ways and get a useful answer.
In this sense, natural language interfaces are more powerful search features rather than a replacement for other types of interfaces.
VSCode is probably the best I can think of, where keyboard shortcuts can get you up to a decent speed as an advanced user, but mouse clicks provide an easy intro for a new user.
For the most part, I see tools like NVim, which is super fast but not new-user friendly. Or IOS, which a toddler can navigate, but doesn't afford many ways to speed up interactions like typing.