Carl Pei, CEO of smartphone maker Nothing, dropped a blunt prediction at SXSW this week: apps as we know them are on borrowed time. In their place? AI agents that know your intentions and act on them without being asked.
"In terms of AI in software, I think people should understand that apps are going to disappear," Pei said during a Wednesday interview at the Austin conference. "So, if you're a founder or a startup and your app is like where the core value lies, that will be disrupted whether you like it or not."
The Problem With Phones Today
Pei's frustration stems from a simple observation: smartphones haven't really changed in two decades. Lock screens, home screens, app grids, an app store—it's all the same paradigm that Palm Pilots used.
"It's very hard to get things done on a phone," he explained. "Let's say we want to grab coffee. That's an intention. But to execute that intention, we have to go through so many different steps and so many different apps. It's probably like four apps to grab coffee with somebody—some messaging app, some kind of maps, Uber, calendar."
The solution? A device that just knows. "I think the future of smartphones or operating systems should just be: 'I know you very well, and if I know your intention, I just do it for you,'" Pei said.
What Comes After Apps
Nothing isn't just theorizing. The company raised $200 million in Series C funding last year specifically to build an "AI-first device" launching in 2027. At a $1.3 billion valuation, investors are betting Pei can pull it off.
Pei envisions three stages. First, AI that executes commands ("book me a flight")—which he dismisses as "super boring." Second, an AI that learns your long-term goals and nudges you toward them. Third, and most radical: a system that suggests things you didn't even know you wanted.
The interface wouldn't look like today's smartphones at all. Rather than apps designed for humans to tap through, it would feature backends built for AI agents to navigate directly. "The future is not the agent using a human interface," Pei said. "You need to create an interface for the agent to use."
The Trust Problem
Nothing's not alone in chasing this vision, but the path is littered with failures. Humane's AI Pin was sold to HP after struggling to find users. Rabbit's R1 device needed multiple software rewrites.
The challenge, as Nothing investor Tony Zappalà told TechCrunch, is trust. "AI features need to reach a stage where users are not double-checking the output," he said. If you're constantly verifying what your AI did, you haven't actually saved time—you've added steps.
Pei believes smartphones will remain "the dominant form factor for all consumer AI applications" for at least three to five years. But when the shift happens, he's betting it won't be incremental. Apps won't fade—they'll become obsolete.
