Three weeks before ChatGPT launched and changed everything, we were already watching an AI teach itself how to use our app.
We'd noticed users weren't discovering basic features. So we built a "magic cursor" that would appear in the builder and demonstrate workflows: adding components, customizing appearance, working with data. Each scenario was just a simple script—actions, CSS selectors, and explanations.
Then we had an idea: what if AI could write these scripts?
We fed GPT-3 some context about Glide's interface structure and asked it to accomplish tasks it had never seen. When we said "add a map to this screen," it figured out the click sequence. "Change my Zapier API key"—it navigated to settings → integrations and found the field. Even for features we hadn't described, it would guess selectors and often succeed.
We were treating Glide as a black box that AI could learn to navigate—no special APIs required. This was November 2022. Today, AI agents that navigate interfaces are everywhere. Back then, it felt like magic.
