TechFlow News, March 19: According to a TechCrunch report, Carl Pei, co-founder and CEO of consumer electronics brand Nothing, stated at the SXSW conference that smartphone apps will eventually disappear, replaced by AI agents as the core interface between users and devices.
Pei noted that today’s smartphone usage patterns remain fundamentally unchanged from those of 20 years ago—the lock screen, home screen, and app store framework has persisted since the iPhone era. Even for simple tasks, users still need to navigate across multiple apps. Taking “meeting a friend for coffee” as an example, he pointed out that this single intent typically requires launching at least four separate apps: messaging, maps, ride-hailing, and calendar.
In his vision, future AI-first devices will deeply understand user intent and proactively execute tasks without requiring step-by-step user input. Going further, such devices will anticipate user needs and proactively offer suggestions—“When the system knows you well enough, it will suggest things you haven’t even thought of yourself.”
Pei also emphasized that future interface design should be built for AI agents—not human operational logic. “Designing interfaces for humans and expecting agents to use them is not the future; the truly forward-looking approach is to build dedicated interfaces for agents.” Previously, Nothing secured a $200 million Series C funding round based on its vision for AI-first devices.
