In recent changes, we have moved the AI suggestion functionality for category and tags to an inline format. Now we are moving the title suggestions to a new home too.
This feature can now be found with the other AI helpers in the AI composer menu:
We have further plans to improve the ease of use of this, so this is not the endstate.
If you or your community heavily relied on this feature being more prominently visible or easier to reach, I’m interested to hear about this.
From experience, I can say that since AI suggestions for categories and tags were moved, no one is really using it. Is it possible to return the star icon next to tags and categories? Is this part of the settings?
It is not no.
It’s interesting to hear that no one is using it anymore. Especially for tags/category, it’s very easy to use it. Have you heard any specific feedback?
In general, users tend to leave the category and tags at their default values or leave them empty. When the star icon was visible without requiring any interaction, it at least provided a visual cue that encouraged users to click it occasionally and let AI generate suggestions.
Now, to use AI Suggestions, users have to physically click the combobox, open the list, select “AI Choose for me,” wait for a new list to appear, and then select an option from that list.
Honestly, this feels quite user-unfriendly and adds unnecessary friction to what should be a simple interaction.
Thanks for the feedback. I made a note of it.
I suspect this is an issue for all users, not just those on the forum where the user reported it.
I think that in this specific case, aesthetics were slightly prioritized over functionality. And the balance between the two should always preserve functionality, ensuring that aesthetics do not compromise it—especially when it comes to changes that seem trivial, were not reported, and do not initially result in anything that actually looks bad.
I wonder if it’s possible to reverse this change? Perhaps by adding an option that lets us choose how to display this AI feature?
Thanks for get it into consideration.
Take role of just an ordinaty user, who isn’t so technically capable and/or isn’t familiar to Discourse tricks. How would that one know from where to get AI-suggestions?
While there is lots of functionality that is not accessible right away with a direct button (how would an app look if every functionality had a button on screen?), you’re not wrong that it’s more steps — @jaroslav.kovar’s description of the tag/category flow is accurate and I’m not going to argue it’s better.
Not debating that.
What’s harder to see from the outside is what the old version cost. The star icon wasn’t “free”. It was noisy for everyone who doesn’t want to use AI generation, and it was costly because it was using a plugin outlet which forced absolute positioning which often breaks in all kinds of scenario’s. The other AI helpers are also all “hidden” in their consolidated menu, if we didn’t, we’d end with a composer that is mostly buttons and no hierarchy. Consolidating into one predictable home for AI actions is what makes the next set of features possible at all.
As I also said in the OP:
Ideally, we get to a point where users do not need to click anything at all. In the sense that if they click “create topic” without a title, the AI just picks the best suggestion and applies it (if enabled).
Other helpful additions could be a JIT mechanism, or a keyboard shortcut. Lots of ideas.
In the meantime, I also wonder for this
At least for category, why not set the default composer category to none, so they are forced to pick something (and thus open the dropdown anyway and see the AI prompt).
So TL;DR I hear the feedback, you’re not wrong, I needed it out of the way for now, and it’ll get better later.
Hope I can count on everyones patience.
