How Meta stumbled onto a winning AI strategy
We’re on the brink of a revolution in how people use AI. Today, people mostly use non-agentic, non-personalized, non-proactive AI tools via PC browsers and mobile apps. Very soon, I predict, most AI usage will move to agentic, personalized, and proactive AI assistants via wearables like glasses, watches, and earbuds. We’ll move from mostly typing and reading to mostly talking and listening. This is a much bigger shift than it sounds. It moves AI from its current status as an external tool that we use to a future status of being part of us, a kind of prosthetic technology like eyeglasses, hearing aids, or an artificial knee. (People use chatbots now for writing assistance [74%], learning and research [64%], work productivity [58%], creative projects [41%], personal organization [37%], and health and wellness [19%]. It’s reasonable to predict that people will continue to use PCs and phones for writing, coding, and image generation, but wearables for the rest.) Surprisingly, one of the least visionary companies in technology currently has the best vision. Meta’s product-vision blunders include the metaverse boondoggle and Horizon Worlds, the failed Facebook Phone, the Libra/Diem cryp…