AI agents are the ultimate Aggregators; they reveal apps as a means, not an end, and offering them is tech's biggest prize, with Meta and Microsoft well-poised

The need to learn how to use many different apps to get tasks done disappears.

Meta and Microsoft are positioning themselves to dominate the emerging market for AI agents, which are poised to redefine how users interact with technology. Ben Thompson's analysis highlights that AI agents, essentially AI with access to a computer, will function as intermediaries, reducing the need for direct user interaction with individual applications. This shift signifies a move away from traditional app-centric interfaces towards a more natural, conversational interaction model, akin to how Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone. Companies like Meta, by providing virtual machines for their AI agents, are enabling users to execute complex tasks without needing to understand or manually operate numerous apps. This development suggests that the value proposition for technology companies will increasingly lie in providing the foundational infrastructure for these AI agents rather than in the apps themselves.

The rise of AI agents represents a fundamental re-architecting of the technology landscape, shifting the focus from applications as endpoints to applications as mere tools for more powerful AI aggregators. Companies that successfully build and control these aggregation layers, such as Meta and Microsoft, stand to capture significant value by becoming the primary interface through which users access digital services. This paradigm shift implies that the future of software development will likely involve creating services and functionalities that are easily consumable by AI agents, rather than solely designing user-facing applications.

This transition directly impacts how users will interact with technology, moving from direct manipulation of distinct apps to more natural, conversational commands mediated by AI. The ability of AI agents to access and operate a virtualized computer environment, as demonstrated by Meta's Muse, means users can delegate complex, multi-step tasks without needing technical expertise. Consequently, the value of traditional app stores and discoverability mechanisms may diminish, replaced by the agent's capability to dynamically create or access the precise functionality required for a given 'job to be done'.