I like chat for saying something imprecise and working out what I mean. I like it much less for finding the approved version of a shot somewhere in yesterday’s conversation.
Once the work has a shape, give it an appropriate workspace. A video needs shots and a timeline. A code change needs a diff. Research needs sources and notes I can navigate without rereading every exchange.
The conversation can stay alongside those things. “Shorten the second shot” is convenient. So is dragging its end on a timeline. Both should change the same underlying project, with the result visible immediately.
That means the agent needs real operations: inspect a shot, change its duration, attach a reference, run a test. A paragraph claiming that it made a change is no substitute for a tool result and an updated object.
I don’t want to remove chat from AI products. I want to stop making it carry the entire interface. Keep it for the parts where language helps, and give the rest of the work somewhere to live.