AI That Generates UI in Real Time (The Future of AI Apps)

Hello everyone. AI models today are very powerful. They can think, plan, write code, and solve problems. But most AI apps still work the same way. You type something, you get text back, and that's the problem. The AI improved, but the user experience didn't. For example, when you integrate Open AI into a project, the model usually returns plain text. As developers, we hardcode the UI. Whatever the model responds with, we just show it as text. But AI responses aren't consistent. Sometimes it gives steps. Sometimes it returns structured data. Sometimes it suggests an action. Building UI for all these cases manually is hard and fragile. So most apps stay as simple chat screens. But users don't want to read long answers. They want to click things, choose options, and take action. That's where generative UI comes in. Instead of AI giving text that we turn into UI, the AI creates the UI itself. If it needs input, it shows a form. If it's data, it shows cards or tables. If there's something to do, it shows buttons. The UI changes based on what the AI wants to do. This is exactly what C1 by thesis is built for. It lets AI return real interactive UI instead of plain text. That means less UI work for developers, better user experience, and AI apps that feel like real products, not chat bots. C1 supports the Open AI SDK, so you can use it directly. It also works with popular frameworks like Versel AI SDK, Copilot Kit, and more. Now I'm on the thesis demo. On the left is a regular AI chat and on the right is a C1 powered chat. So you can easily compare the responses side by side. Here I asked the same stock question on both sides. On the left it's just text. On the right C1 turns the response into actual visuals you can read instantly. C1 streams UI in real time so components appear as the model responds. It's generating different charts in seconds. It automatically converts the response into structured stock cards. No UI code, no manual layouts. Everything just works and stays responsive. Same data, but now it's structured, visual, and actually usable. It works with both GPT5 and Claude models, giving you flexibility to choose the one you want. From here, the conversation continues through generative UI using forms and controls instead of prompts. Integrating C1 is super simple, just two steps. On the back end, it's open AI compatible, so you only change the base URL and pick your model. On the front end, replace your regular markdown renderer with the C1 component. Customize UI if you want. Getting started is easiest with C1 in a Next.js project using the CLI. Running this command gives you a ready template and walks you through setting your first API key. In this project, we have a single page file and it already comes wired with the required API setup. It's using the Open AI SDK with the GPT5 model by default. This is the project preview. I'm going to ask for top trending laptops within a specific price range. As you can see, the C1 API is working locally in our project. This also means we can plug in our own data sources. To do that, we only need a couple of small changes. Here, I've added the tools configuration for Open AI. Inside this function, you can directly connect your own API or database. If your data is large, you'd typically use a vector database. For this demo, I'm just passing the data directly into the model. One important thing, make sure you're using Open AI SDK version 6 or above. Now, let's test it. I'll ask for a product that exists in my API. And you can see the response is coming entirely from our own backend. The image, price, rating, everything is pulled from our API, not hard-coded. This is C1 working with your own data end to end. Now, I've added one more improvement. On the left, I'm displaying all the products from my API. On the right, I've customized the C1 component to render the results. I've shared the full source code on GitHub in the video description. You can use this sample app as a base and adapt it for a real project. We have different product categories in the API. So now I'm asking for furniture products. As you can see, the C1 API returns realtime UI using the same images and product data. It even generates a comparison table and shows availability for each product automatically. Now, if I change the intent and ask something like, I want to buy a lipstick, C1 switches the UI completely. It shows an add to cart button and also suggests related products below. Same data, different intent, and the UI adapts automatically. You can take this further by adding your own custom components to C1. That lets you render fully custom React UI instead of default components. With custom actions, those components can trigger real logic like API calls or workflows. So, the UI isn't just visual, it's directly connected to your application. The thesis examples GitHub repo is really useful. I built this demo product app using it, and I'll share the link in the video description. There's a free plan to get started with C1. You get 5,000 API calls per month and $10 in free LLM credits. So whether you're building ecommerce, internal tools, or customer-f facing apps, C1 handles the UI. You focus on features and business logic, while C1 generates the interfaces automatically. It's not just about saving time. It's about building better products faster. And that's exactly what modern development should look like. If you found this valuable, hit that subscribe button and drop a comment with what you'd build first.