With all this talk of AI and its impact on web traffic, what about mobile? Where do mobile apps and the mobile web stand in the era of agents?
The use of AI for search is starting to have the predicted effect of decreased overall web traffic, since fewer people are clicking the blue links of search. They no longer need to, because generative search results that are AI-based will gather what you need and bring it directly to you, in a format common on desktop and mobile.
This behaviour is becoming commonplace, and websites are suffering because they’re seeing fewer visitors than in years past. That trend is only going to continue.
But what about mobile apps?
Single channel experience
Google has been running a series of ads touting Gemini on its Android phones, noting how users can simply engage with voice activation and AI. Apple has, unfortunately, failed to create that experience with Siri, and as a result many of us are forced to use the Gemini (or Co-Pilot or ChatGPT) apps on our phones to create that type of experience.
For now, this is a single channel experience, meaning you use the AI like a search engine to respond to questions.
In that model, there’s no impact on the mobile app landscape because those AI agents cannot access and engage with the apps on your phone. That’s the promise of Siri that hasn’t been realised, but must clearly be on the horizon.
What every user is looking for is a truly personal virtual assistant. I can currently call out to my phone and ask it to send an email, respond to a text, or schedule a reminder. I use those functions daily. Those are limited app engagements.
Access points for AI agents
Soon I will be able to ask my phone to text my wife and ask what time she can meet me for dinner after work, and it will take her response and ask me if it should schedule a reservation at our favourite restaurant based on that response.
I will ask my phone to review the grocery list and schedule the grocery store pick-up for those items for 4 pm tomorrow. This is a wider functionality that’s not currently available to me now, but is coming.
All those experiences would currently require me to go to an app on my phone to access. Once the agents take over, my need to use mobile apps will decline. So the question arises “What is the role of a mobile app anymore?”
Do apps simply become access points for AI agents? Is the mobile UI going to radically change to reflect less need to engage these apps directly?
Your phone will stay close by
A voice-activated interface for technology will be the primary method of engagement, but it will never be the only one. There are simply too many times when voice activation is not practical. There will always be a silent UI for typing to engage these agents that you will use in public, on the subway, in the store, and more.
Thus, a mobile deck with app access still seems viable, if not revised to reflect the way agents access everything. Maybe your phone UI will simply consist of an Agent-access button at the top, and your primary apps rotating underneath based on what you are typically doing at that time of the day, or in that specific situation. All could be hypothesised by the AI to create a more customised UI.
As overall web traffic declines, I think the mobile app landscape will remain one of the primary channels, alongside video.
Video is going to be the dominant media format, but your phone will stay close by and remain an asset in your day-to-day experience. I guess mobile is here to stay!
Cory Treffiletti is chief marketing officer at generative AI-powered product placement platform, Rembrand. He was previously SVP at FIS. He has been a thought leader, executive and business driver in the digital media landscape since 1994. In addition to authoring a weekly column on digital media, advertising and marketing since 2000 for MediaPost‘s Online Spin, Treffiletti has been a successful executive, media expert and/or founding team member for a number of companies, and published a book, Internet Ad Pioneers, in 2012.
