An OOPSLA 2026 paper gave 18 participants a map editor where a mouse and a prompt box modified the exact same underlying program — as fair a head-to-head as this comparison gets — and watched people choose the mouse for 93.86% of their 2,946 edits. The prompt only won two jobs: batching what would otherwise take six to nine clicks, and moonshot attempts at things people assumed the canvas couldn’t do.
We also work through the honest complication: Amplitude’s internal data shows a chat-first interface lifting engagement, and JetBrains’ developer survey shows a mouseless tool like Claude Code gaining share. Neither actually contradicts the study once you read past the headline — and we trace what that means for any product about to bolt a chat panel next to controls that already work.