The recently launched device Rabbit R1 has garnered significant attention. Think of Rabbit as a handheld AI assistant that performs various tasks through voice commands, including interacting with your existing apps. It simply conveys your requests to your favorite app and executes them.
If you have followed Bill Gates’ writings, this advancement shouldn’t come as a surprise. In his November ’23 blog, Gates wrote: https://www.gatesnotes.com/AI-agents.
“To perform any task on a computer, you have to specify which app to use. You can use Microsoft Word and Google Docs for drafting a business proposal, but they can’t help you send an email, share a selfie, analyze data, schedule a party, or purchase movie tickets. However, this will change completely in the next five years. You won’t need different apps for various tasks. You’ll simply communicate your intentions to your device in everyday language. Depending on how much information you choose to share, the software will respond personally because it will possess a rich understanding of your life.”
This type of software, capable of responding to natural language and performing various tasks based on its understanding of the user, is known as an agent. Gates apparently wrote about agents in his 1995 book, “The Road Ahead.”
Will agents completely replace apps?
Jaspreet Bindra, in his recent LiveMint article, states: “ChatGPT and other bots, however impressive, are just the beginning of the AI era. The power of natural language AI agents will reshape big tech, fundamentally transform computing, and change our lives in the same way that PCs and smartphones have over the last few decades, as we delve deeper into this new Rabbit hole.”
Rabbit, as I understand it, is not positioned to entirely replace apps. Instead, it aims to replicate human interactions with apps by learning and then removing them from the user experience, with a focus on creating an app-free environment.
With this trend in mind, here are a few questions for #productmanagers to contemplate:
– How might the emergence of AI agents change the way product managers approach app development and user experience design?
– In a world where agents can seamlessly interact with apps, how should product managers adapt their strategies for app integration and compatibility?
– Will the rise of AI agents lead to a shift in consumer expectations regarding app functionality and user interfaces?
What are your thoughts and takeaways?
Here’s my sketchnote summary of Jaspreet Bindra’s article “AI could herald a new digital era as apps give way to voice agents”: https://jaspreetbindra.com/ai/ai-as-voice-agents/
