Why would I want an AI agent to replace my phone?

You can't go anywhere on the internet today without running into AI. In some cases, that's useful. AI can do some amazing things. On the other hand, it often feels like we're watching someone reinvent the wheel. Now, word on the street is that OpenAI wants to build its own phone with an experience built around AI agents. Put simply, I think that sounds horrible.

OpenAI's first smartphone is apparently in the pipeline, set to launch sometime around 2028. The device, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo says, would replace the traditional smartphone experience with one focused around AI agents that complete tasks for you. Kuo explained:

There's a bit of truth to that. When we pick up our phones, we're often trying to get something done, whether that be sending a message, ordering something online, or whatever else. Besides the fact that, equally as often, we're just looking to have some fun or consume entertainment, I think this misses the point of what we want from our smartphones.

The idea that the phone in my pocket exists solely as a tool for me to get tasks done undermines the human aspect completely. This conceptual future where the smartphone is all about AI agents getting things done on your behalf just removes human experience from the picture altogether. Kuo's concept image shows an "Agent Task Stream" that shows ongoing tasks that the AI agent is handling in the background – booking flights, compiling/summarizing data, drafting replies to emails, setting up plans for a family dinner, and showing the status of a policy renewal. To an extent, I can see myself using an agent on these tasks, though I'd be hard-pressed to use the same AI that just learned how to spell "strawberry" to book a flight on my behalf. But for this to be my phone's entire experience?

Again, that just sounds bad.

All of this is to say, I don't want AI to replace my phone. AI agents absolutely have a place in the future of the smartphone, and a growing one at that. But I only view them as a "part," not the whole experience. Opening Gemini, or the agent of your choice, to view this "task stream" and check in on tasks you've assigned could be rather useful, but I want my phone to be built around my choice, my experience, not what works best for the AI agent.

Not long ago, Nothing CEO Carl Pei spoke on how services and apps will need to be redesigned to cater to these agents, and I still think this is missing the point. If we're to have these AI agents, services and apps need to focus on both the human experience as well as how they talk to AI agents.

The response to this idea around OpenAI's future smartphone has been all over the place. Many, especially on Twitter/X, are all-in for this future of a phone that's basically just a physical AI agent. Others are the polar opposite, wanting a device that's nowhere near this vision. I think there's a middle ground, definitely, but it's all going to come down to who's behind it and what their priority is. I certainly worry about this, given how big tech seems to only care about AI right now, and not much else.

What do you think?

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