The next chapter is AI that is useful, affordable, ubiquitous and increasingly capable of solving real-world problems.
Meta unveiled a new stack of AI products: 1) Muse, a fast-growing personal AI agent inspired in part by the OpenClaw model, 2) lighter VR glasses that create a private spatial workspace, 3) audio-only AI glasses; and Muse Charm, 4) a tiny keychain device that puts the agent one tap away.
The individual products are interesting BUT the direction of travel far more important.
OpenAI, Anthropic and Google are all moving toward increasingly capable agents that can use software, access information and execute tasks. Amazon and Apple are moving in related directions through their own AI and device ecosystems.
That convergence matters.
Computing is moving from applications that we operate toward agents that can operate across applications on our behalf. There is an interesting second-order effect here: the software itself is changing because agents are the users.
Dharmesh Shah made an interesting observation today. He notes that users may be more familiar with Google Slides and in some ways prefer it, BUT they may increasingly use Microsoft PPT because of its integration with OpenAI and Anthropic's AI models.
That points to a new dimension of software competition.
UI and UX were primarily about making software easier for humans to use. Increasingly, companies must compete on how easily humans can accomplish things through AI.
The best product may be the one that lets an agent understand the context, manipulate the underlying data, execute the workflow and get us to the desired outcome with the least friction.
That brings me to the bigger question: What happens to work?
Knowledge work has followed a familiar sequence:
Open the application -> Find the information -> Move data between systems -> Decide what needs to happen -> Execute the steps.
Agents compress that workflow.
You state an outcome:
“Prepare me for the client meeting. Tell me what changed, identify my open commitments, draft the follow-up and remind me what I promised.” The agent finds the information, coordinates the software and performs much of the work.
The hardware becomes the interface to that intelligence.
A laptop provides depth and precision, a phone provides control, earbuds provide conversation. Glasses provide ambient access and visual context, spatial computing provides an immersive workspace and a device like Muse Charm provides instant access.
The interface may change BUT the intelligence will persist across it, a la Ironman's J.A.R.V.I.S.
That is the zoomed-out story I find most interesting.
We have seen this playout before: UNIVAC to computers on every desk, expensive car phones to smartphones in every pocket, AI that couldn't count the number of Rs “strawberry” to models that can solve Olympiad-level mathematics.
The next chapter is AI that is useful, affordable, ubiquitous and increasingly capable of solving real-world problems.
Until next time,
Ram
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Ram Srinivasan
MIT Alum | Author, The Conscious Machine | Global Future of Work and AI Adoption Leader published in Business Insider, Fortune, Harvard Business Review, MIT Executive Viewpoints and more.
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Disclaimer:
Ram Srinivasan currently serves as an Innovation Strategist and Transformation Leader, authoring groundbreaking works including "The Conscious Machine" and the upcoming "The Substrate Shift."
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