I’ve been thinking about something that doesn’t get nearly enough attention in tech circles: what happens when the next third of humanity comes online? Thanks to low-cost satellite internet, we’re looking at potentially 2.6 billion new users joining the digital world – and their experience will be fundamentally different from anything we’ve seen before.
These users won’t start with Google or even a browser. They’ll start with AI. Taking a step back, I think we’re witnessing the emergence of two distinct internet experiences:
- The legacy experience most of us know – typing queries into search bars, navigating between apps, and generally dealing with the fragmented digital landscape we’ve built over decades.
- An entirely new “agent-first” experience where AI serves as the primary interface between humans and technology.
What fascinates me about this shift is how it might completely rewrite the rules of tech dominance. The companies that have built empires on controlling specific applications or platforms could find themselves suddenly disintermediated by whoever controls the AI interface layer. And, based on all news accounts I personally think this is where IO/OpenAI with Jonny Ive are heading.
I don’t believe most tech executives fully appreciate the magnitude of this shift. When someone’s first digital interaction is speaking to an AI in their native language rather than typing into a search box, their expectations and behaviors will be fundamentally different. They’ll expect seamless integration across services, contextual understanding, and natural interaction, things our current patchwork of digital services struggles to provide. To that end, businesses that only think in their language are not going to scale globally. You need to be working for the world, or at least recognize that not everyone speaks your language.
The implications here are enormous. Value could rapidly shift from those who own specific applications to those who own the interface through which users access everything. Platform lock-in becomes less relevant when an AI agent can seamlessly navigate between services on your behalf. That means design and engineering need to be agnostic.
This isn’t just about new markets, either. As these agent-first interfaces improve, they’ll inevitably flow back to established markets, potentially reshaping how all of us interact with technology. The companies positioning themselves at this interface layer today are playing for incredibly high stakes.
What’s particularly striking is how this might democratize access in ways previous internet expansions haven’t. When language barriers and technical complexity disappear, the true potential of connecting billions more minds to the global information ecosystem becomes apparent.
The question isn’t whether this agent-first internet will emerge – it’s already happening. The real question is who will shape it, and whether the resulting power structures will be more or less concentrated than what we have today, because it’s worth noting that whoever controls these AI interfaces will have unprecedented insight into user behavior and needs, potentially creating new forms of platform power even as they disrupt existing ones.