The end of Mobile Apps 📱

Web3 was supposed to change the internet, and Facebook tried to convince us that we were about to live in a metaverse. In the past, we have seen many calls for revolutionary technologies that were supposed to change our lives completely but failed to deliver on their promises. However, AI is different!

AI is already changing how we interact with technology. As AI becomes more personal, I believe we will see the death of mobile apps and a deep transformation of tech companies.

Today, when you need a taxi or food delivery, you open your favorite app and place an order. In the near future, AI agents will handle this for you. They will directly access the APIs of all service providers in your area, comparing prices, ratings, and delivery times to make the most informed decision—something that is impractical for a human to do manually before every ride or meal.

In this new AI-driven landscape, companies will no longer rely on branding, advertising, or app loyalty. Instead, they will compete on logistics, pricing, and service quality, as AI agents are not influenced by traditional marketing tactics designed for humans.

So, here is my analysis of how each app segment will evolve:

❓ Q&A & Knowledge Platforms (Quora, Stack Overflow, Google Search)

AI is already answering questions more effectively than traditional platforms, and this trend will only accelerate. Many people are already relying on AI to ask questions and even do online research, and Google is feeling the pressure.

🚗 Ride-Hailing & Mobility (Uber, Lyft, Bolt)

You won’t need an app to call a taxi—just ask your AI assistant, and it will arrange everything for you. Uber will continue to exist for drivers to handle requests, and the company will keep providing taxi services through API to agents. However, by losing their phone app, they will lose their moat around the taxi market, opening the door to more competition.

✈️ Travel & Booking (Expedia, Airbnb, Skyscanner)

Planning a trip is both time-consuming and repetitive. AI can organize entire vacations or business trips, handling flights, hotels, and transport. We already see some chatbots trying to do that.

🍔 Food Delivery & Grocery Apps (Uber Eats, Deliveroo, Instacart)

Why open an app to order food when your AI can handle it? Your assistant can plan all your daily activities, including meals, and order food for you when you're busy. People may still want to browse pictures of food just for the experience when they have time to kill. The personal AI app may also be able to generate an infinite scroll of products, making third-party apps completely unnecessary. By losing their UI app, these companies will lose user loyalty and transform into HR/logistic companies competing for the lowest delivery price.

🛒 Shopping & E-commerce (Amazon, eBay, Shopify)

Browsing the internet to buy products will become unnecessary when you can delegate shopping to an AI. AI can also handle predictive shopping, anticipating your needs before realizing them. People may still want to browse items just for the experience when they have time to kill, as for the food list. Even here, if the AI generates an infinite scroll, there is no need for a third-party app.

🎟️ Events & Ticketing Apps (Eventbrite, Meetup, Ticketmaster, Facebook Events)

Your AI will scan event listings, match them with your interests, and recommend the best ones for you—eliminating the need for manual event searches.

💰 Finance & Accounting (QuickBooks, Xero, Home banking)

Most people don’t enjoy accounting and bookkeeping. AI can be a personal accountant, automatically managing transactions, tracking expenses, and filing taxes. Many individuals check their bank's app once a week or month to assess their financials, but this is a straightforward question that AI can resolve. It will require a huge amount of trust for people to allow AI to manage all their money, but this will become the norm for new generations. Some dashboards may still be available for oversight, or they could be views generated by the AI itself.

🧠 Well-Being & Mental Health (Calm, Headspace, BetterHelp, Fitness Apps)

Why use an app when you can talk to an AI psychologist? Instead of manually logging workouts or scheduling therapy, AI will act as a personal wellness coach, suggesting meditation, exercise, and psychological support based on your mood and health data. Some interfaces for direct interaction may remain.

📅 Bookings systems (Fresha, Booksy, StyleSeat, Treatwell)

Personal AI will be a secretary managing bookings with hairdressers and any other customer service company. This means all the website managing booking will be reduced to API called by an AI.

🎥 Streaming & Entertainment (Netflix, Spotify, YouTube)

Alexa is already playing music and movies for me. I expect to see all these platforms wrapped around AI Agents.

💼 Sales & Advertising (Cold Calls, LinkedIn Sales, Promotional Emails)

These are not apps, but there will be a really interesting transformation here. Instead of being bombarded with sales pitches, your AI will act as a filter, reviewing offers and only presenting relevant ones. A better strategy for businesses will be to send every sales pitch to personal AI agents and let them decide what's worth the user's attention.

📱 Operating Systems (OS)

The OS itself dissolves into the background. Rather than being a layer of icons and settings, it becomes an ambient AI agent—controlling your device, launching services, managing hardware, and responding to your voice or intent across Smart TVs, wearables, and glasses. The AI doesn’t run on the OS—it is the OS.

So, what apps will still exist?

• ✅ Messaging & Communication (WhatsApp, Slack, Telegram)
• ✅ Social Media (Instagram, LinkedIn, X, TikTok)
• ✅ Videogames

We can assume that people will opt for the laziest solution, just as we did with every technological advancement. We can then assume that people will be happy to have a 24-hour personal assistant care for them. Going forward, developers need to adapt and start building services and applications AI agent-first instead of human frontends.

My prediction is that this transition will start in 2025, bringing in the first early adopters and that this new market will gain momentum in 2026.

Historical Context

• Mainframes (1950s–1970s)
• PC & Networks (1980s–1990s)
• Web & Servers (1990s–2000s)
• Internet & Cloud (2000s–2010s)
• Apps & Platforms (2010s–2024)
• Agentic AI & Robotics (2025→ Singularity?)