Our smartphones have a ton of apps, and it’s these apps that allow our phones to do all kinds of things. However, Nothing CEO Carl Pei took the stage at SXSW in Austin this week with a blunt prediction: apps are going to disappear. Instead, he thinks AI agents will take their place.
Pei used a straightforward example to explain why. Getting coffee with a friend means bouncing between a messaging app, maps, a ride-hailing app, and a calendar. “It’s probably like four apps to grab coffee with somebody,” he said. He wants phones to skip all of that. Know the intention, handle it, done.
“Apps are going to disappear,” Pei said. “If you’re a founder or a startup and your app is where the core value lies, that will be disrupted whether you like it or not.”
What Pei says comes next
Pei drew a distinction between two approaches to AI on phones. Some companies build AI that mimics how a human uses a phone, tapping through existing app interfaces on the user’s behalf. Pei doesn’t think that’s the right direction. He said agents need their own interfaces to interact with. Not UIs built for human fingers.
Nothing has been moving toward this with Essential, its AI platform that lets users create lightweight apps through plain language. The company closed a $200 million Series C last year around the concept of an AI-first device. The pitch is for a phone that knows you well enough that you don’t need to double-check what it does.
Pei acknowledged apps aren’t disappearing soon. He’s previously put the timeline at seven to ten years. Nothing’s own OS still supports user-built mini apps today. But he told startup founders to start rethinking their products now. Waiting until agents go mainstream, he suggested, is probably too late.
