Is AI Going to Kill Apps Forever?
This Week in Products we explore how AI is quietly replacing your app, and why product builders need to adapt or disappear.
The Big Shift: AI signals the end of apps as we know them
In a recent interview with prominent Silicon Valley investor Andreessen Horowitz, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth shared a vision of a future where AI dissolves traditional user interfaces.
Instead of clicking through apps, users will express intent like “play music,” “book dinner,” “plan my trip” and AI will handle the rest.
Andreessen and Bosworth predict that app interfaces in the future will be invisible. And the medium to deliver your product’s service would be AI itself!
Driving the news
Gartner predicts mobile app usage will decrease 25% by 2027
According to Gartner’s recent report: “Smartphone users will turn to AI assistants, such as Apple Intelligence, ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Meta AI, and others, to replace apps for many functions.”
I believe we’re already halfway there to this future. AI has quietly crept into our daily lives, shaping how we interact with products, information, or services.
For instance, you’ve already been talking to Alexa or Siri for years to play your favorite music or do your math calculations.
AI assistants, as they evolve, will try to provide the best possible answer or output to your query. Here, the user’s intent becomes the input. The AI becomes the interface and executor rolled into one, choosing what output or product fits the user’s needs the most. Soon, AI assistants will become so nuanced and personalized, they will wield more power and control over user behavior and what products dictate our lives.
Soon, you won’t dictate which app they should choose to do your bidding. They will automatically do.
Reading between the lines
Great for users, a Nightmare for companies
For users, this means no more app-hopping or comparisons. AI delivers what you need, when you need it, without friction.
For companies? It’s a nightmare. The old “download an app” model expected users to discover a product for their needs. But today AI says, “I got this.”
Brand loyalty collapses: If AI chooses the best product for users, will they even care if it's Spotify or some no-name competitor that offers better music for their mood?
Apps will lose power: As AI becomes the front door, app icons and store listings will matter less with every passing month.
The big picture
Product companies are evolving, too!
Instead of asking, “How do we make the user experience better?”, the new question becomes: “How do we become the best response to a user’s intent?
Spotify is a prime example of a company adapting to the new order.
Here are two things they do right:
Spotify embeds itself into ecosystems like Siri, Alexa, and even Tesla dashboards to become more pervasive. They forge partnerships to become the de facto music player. In a world where users don’t open an app but simply say “play music” to AI, you want your product to be the invisible hand that does it. Make your product accessible through APIs and AI platforms. Be everywhere, even if no one sees you.
Spotify is also working to become the best possible answer to a user’s intent: “play something for my mood” or “recommend music for focus.”
Summing it all up
What does this sifting trend mean for Product Leaders?
Marshall McLuhan, a famous media theorist, once said, “The medium is the message.” Today, AI is the medium. And when the medium changes, everything downstream changes too… product design, go-to-market, and even how value is delivered.
Here’s what product leaders need to do:
1. Invest in Agent-Readiness
In an AI-first world, “agent-readiness” will be what “mobile-responsiveness” was in the 2010s. Can an agent use your service without your front-end? Can you serve a user’s intent without requiring them to open your app? Prepare for a future where users may never see your UI, only your value.
2. Rethink Distribution & Interoperability
You’re no longer just competing for app installs. You're competing to be selected by AI. So your API is your interface. Or rather, your MCP architecture (read about it here). If your product isn't structured, accessible, and callable by LLMs or AI agents (ChatGPT plugins, Apple Intelligence, Alexa, Meta’s glasses), it’s invisible.
3. Redefine Success Metrics:
When the user doesn’t choose the product, metrics like MAUs or DAUs aren’t your only leading metrics. Instead, track API usage, measure "intent-to-fulfillment" time, and define success by how well AI agents can use your product behind the scenes.
4. AI is the new UI - Rethink User Interaction
Historically, in the enterprise world, business users navigated multiple apps to get things done. In an AI-first world, interaction shifts from clicks and taps to conversational and predictive experiences. Freshworks’ Freddy AI, as we explored in our recent ProdWrks article, is doing exactly this. Instead of routing users through layers of menus, Freddy engages at the first interaction. It understands the user's intent and needs, provides context, and executes tasks without switching screens.
A Final Word…
We’re entering a post-app era. AI is the interface. Intent is the input. And delivery is invisible. This means product leaders must stop thinking like just app builders, and start thinking like ecosystem players. The winners will be products that:
Show up when and where intent is expressed
Deliver outcomes with minimal friction
Integrate into AI systems instead of trying to own the UI
A video I found insightful
Zuck & Nadella discuss AI, coding, and open source developments.
Just watched this video where Zuckerberg chats with Satya Nadella about AI, open source, and coding, and there’s this one line from Satya that really stuck with me. He says, “The web may have been born on Windows, but it quickly expanded beyond that, and that’s where I see AI heading towards.”
Here are my key takeaways from the video:
🧠 A New Kind of Software:
Nadella highlights a shift in how software is created. What used to start with code now begins with intent, leading to a “living artifact” rather than a traditional application. This change could reshape how workflows are designed and executed.
📈 Progress Isn’t Linear:
Referencing Moore’s Law, Nadella sees AI advancement not as a single curve, but as multiple S-curves that build on one another. We’ve hit a point where AI can build deep, capable applications on its own.
🤖 Multimodal + Multi-Agent Apps:
Today’s AI tools are increasingly multimodal, with agents communicating and working together. This is breaking down old software categories that were shaped by earlier technical limitations.
🔗 Interoperability Over Ideology:
For Nadella, the debate between open vs. closed source is outdated. What truly matters is that systems work together seamlessly, because users just want things to function, not follow dogma.
Just for laughs…
The only retention hack that really works
📬I hope you enjoyed this week's curated stories and resources. Check your inbox again next week, or read previous editions of this newsletter for more insights. To get instant updates, connect with me on LinkedIn.
Cheers!
Khuze Siam
Founder: Siam Computing & ProdWrks