So, before TikTok was facing ban issues in the US, it was said that about 40% of surveyed Gen-Z folks were using TikTok as a search engine, as opposed to Google. With generative AI models gaining traction since 2023, it’s said that more and more people may using these LLMs – at least as a complement to your traditional Google Search – if not outright replacement.
But, can AI go even deeper and bigger?
Inevitably, after smartphones went the touchscreen route, one had to wonder how the humble phone would evolve to make the touchscreen feature obsolete. Would the phone become a hologram? Would the phone present itself through a lens in front of your eye? Would Google Glass have made a comeback?
OpenAI’s Samuel Altman may be looking to create an AI-powered hardware device that could essentially replace the traditional smartphone you might use and love. Which is interesting, because it’s said that people were checking their phones every 12 minutes or so. If Samuel’s able to achieve that, imagine AI helping you break that bad habit.
So, how’s this going to happen? Samuel was said to have revealed in February 2025 that OpenAI has partnered with the former Chief Design Officer of Apple called Jony Ive, who’s said to be legendary. So, with all that Apple expertise, the new product could be pretty interesting. Jony Ive knows the business and OpenAI knows the chemistry.
Maybe, Samuel thinks the current touchscreen system with all the manual inputs is so 2010s. So, would his company’s AI-native device catch on? Could it evolve the phone as we know it? The iPhone and Android smartphones may have replaced flip phones, is it time to replace those, too?
The form factor of this device is still not completely out there. It may take years before a prototype is even out. Remember AI-powered necklaces? Would it be something similar to that? Where there’d be multi-modal AI processing that would listen, see, understand and anticipate what you need?
The screenless assumption may be a given. So, this may entirely rely on voice, gestures, sensors and more. Maybe, we’d get to choose what the wearable assistant would be. Maybe, a earpiece or watch or pendant? Something clipped to your top? Maybe, a ring? Some people are already talking to LLMs through the voice feature and being serenaded. Maybe, that could remove unnecessary distractions.
Could any of that realistically replace a smartphone? The idea may sound ludicrous at the moment. Are consumers just going to embrace voice-first tech? But, who knows how the customer evolves in the next couple of years? Maybe, in the 1960s, they would have scoffed if someone would have told them people would be able to take a photo with their telephone.
Plus, the elephant in the room might be that OpenAI is not a hardware company… yet. So, mass production that way might be a different ballgame. Would they figure something out? Samuel’s been hanging out in Japan recently, could he have help there? If the semiconductor supply chain seems to already be stressed, could a whole new world of AI-native devices mean additional supply bottlenecks? Someone shine the Bat signal in the form of the Nvidia logo!
Though, if you’re at a party or a pub or some noisy place, you could use your smartphone. Would Samuel’s device work in noisy environments, assuming it may be voice-first? Or maybe, if there was some AR integration, it could be all-terrain. The battery life issues might be prevalent, however. On the other hand, if there’s an always-listening AI, some might be worried about privacy. Plus, you’d have to worry about universal connectivity. Would this require you to link with the Starbucks WiFi to get what you need or other public WiFis? Could 4G or 5G play a role here?
In theory, this might be something that could kill all the apps on your phone. Imagine a single AI-powered interface that could handle all your requests. But, where would people go for their brainrot fix? How does Instagram or TikTok or YouTube fit in? Is this something that could start the decline of all the app-based ecosystems out there?
Imagine, for your food needs, if something just tells you the closest and best restaurants and where you could get a dish you want, AI compiling that for you, analyzing the reviews and doing that for you. Maybe, AI is already doing that to support those platforms, but this way, those brands get thrown overboard. And how payment happens would be an interesting feature. A lot of tech startups, both in India and abroad, might be app-first and built around traditional smartphone interactions. So, they might be rooting for Samuel’s device to fail or else, they’ll have to fundamentally rethink how they operate.
If these startups fear that OpenAI could make this AI-first device a success, would they start investing in and pushing for AI-native interactions from now only? Where they’d get you to do voice-first shopping or voice-first UPI or make you deal with AI assistants every time you want customer support? Maybe, all the language localization tech startups might be happy to get validated this way. And all the hardware players around the world would have to huddle internally to figure out whether they could become AI-first or risk potential irrelevance. Because this may indicate a total rewiring of how most businesses interact with their consumers. Could they really prepare for a post-app and post-screen world?
Though, if there is this kind of transition, the digital economy might face death by a thousand paper cuts. No revenue stream for app stores if there are no screens or apps. No app purchases might mean no ads or paid subscriptions. So, will OpenAI go the brand partnership route?
And instead of just reacting to OpenAI’s innovation if and when it comes out, could India get cracking to foster some kind of AI-first hardware revolution? Is indigenous AI-native hardware feasible in 2025 and beyond? And would that mean that VCs would reduce their focus on app-dependent businesses?
On the other hand, this could be just an evolved Alexa or Siri feature complementing the smartphone, who knows? An AI-first vision might sound nice, but it might disregard something pretty important: human behaviour. Who knows whether people would just blatantly and voluntarily ditch their deeply-ingrained smartphone habits? Are they really prepared to go screenless? At this point, a smartphone might be an emotional extension of your life that you may be acclimatized to. Is it wishful thinking to assume people would give up screens entirely?
Does this mean people go back to using computers for e-commerce? Would people buy clothes or shoes just because AI verbally describes them? All of this is assuming this is voice-based. Completely replacing social media doomscrolling, watching videos or playing games on a phone might be a tall order. It’s a complete redefining of an experience.
On the other hand, people switched from watching videos to listening to podcasts pretty soon. That might be an indicator: switching from sight to voice.
Samuel and OpenAI have already set something in motion which people hail as “redefining industries”. If their AI-first hardware device gets adoption en masse, it could mean an industry-wide reset. Right now, everyone’s resting on the laurels of screen-based engagement models, but are these potentially fragile? Is the new AI-first economy upon us?
