AI empty state

The AI empty state is the screen a person sees before they have asked anything: a new chat, a fresh "Ask AI" panel in a document, an assistant sidebar opened for the first time. It is the first and often only chance to explain what the feature is for. A bare text box with "Ask me anything" puts all the work on the user, who has to guess both what is possible and how to phrase it.

Why it matters

Empty states in general do more than fill space. NN/g's empty state guidelines (Kaplan, 2021) recommend using them to communicate system status, provide learning cues, and offer direct pathways to key tasks, noting that well-designed empty states "can help increase user confidence, improve system learnability, and help users get started with key tasks."

For AI inputs the stakes are higher, because capability is invisible. The first guideline in Microsoft's Guidelines for Human-AI Interaction is "Make clear what the system can do." Google's PAIR guidebook advises: "Be up-front about what your product can and can't do the first time the user interacts with it."

How to apply it

Do:

• State the purpose in one line, specific to the context. A meeting-notes summariser might say: "Ask about this meeting: decisions, action items, who said what."
• Add a few prompt suggestions that show the range of tasks. Apple's generative AI guidelines recommend offering "diverse, predefined example inputs that hint at what's possible."
• Use what you know. If the user opened the assistant on an invoice, suggest invoice tasks. NN/g's chatbot guidelines recommend tailoring the opening message to the current page.
• Mention one key limitation briefly, for example "Can't see attachments yet" or "Answers may be wrong, check figures."
• Show what context the AI will use (this document, your calendar, selected files) so people know what it can see.

Don't:

• Lead with a long welcome message, feature tour or legal text.
• Use a vague greeting. In NN/g's testing, one participant reacting to a generic opener asked: "Does this know that I'm on this page? I don't think it does."
• Show the same empty state to someone on their hundredth visit. Returning users may want recent chats or last-used actions instead.

Common mistakes

• Blank box, blinking cursor. No hint of scope leads to either timid, trivial prompts or overambitious ones that fail.
• Overpromising placeholders. "Ask me anything" sets an expectation the system cannot meet.
• Generic, context-free examples. Suggestions unrelated to the current screen are ignored.
• Hiding the input. Decorative illustrations or carousels that push the text field below the fold.
• No path for "I don't know what to ask." A short list of common tasks gives undecided users somewhere to start.