what collapses.
and the far better thing that replaces it.
people have always carried less in their heads to do greater things. ai is the biggest step yet. here is what i think falls away once agents stand on both sides, on an open protocol, and what replaces it, ranked by how soon i think each one falls, fastest first. the order is my reading. the teaser names the three that matter most, the ui, software and communication as we know them. here are all eleven. the long history of humans and technology gets its own take, soon.
the file format.
replaced byyour way of understanding
formats made sharing easy, then hardened into rules: pdf, deck, doc. the lines already blur. formats existed to make understanding easier, and agents do that better.
i think in text. someone else in video, someone else in a dashboard. your agent shows the same work the way you understand. i think formats end fastest.
the dashboard.
replaced bythe answer you asked for
for decades we used technology to read less and understand more: the summary, the chart, the dashboard. nothing beats someone answering exactly what you asked. your agent watches, asks the agents on the other side, and tells you.
visualization stays, as a taste, not a necessity.
software as the product.
replaced byscaffolding any agent can run
they say software is dead, because an ai builds an app in an afternoon. software is not dead. what it was worth is: products worth billions fall to pennies, maybe not today, but soon.
when something gets that cheap, we do not stop using it. we build what it never could. if anyone could make a car, we would not just make more cars. we would make ones that fly, seat hundreds, turn into another vehicle, run on any fuel.
so software becomes scaffolding: plain files, clear tools, open rules, run by any agent on your laptop or your cloud. no seat to rent. the purpose it serves moves ten times faster. opensoftware, launching tuesday 3 nov, is the simple start: one line installs the open twin of the software you use.
the form and the click.
replaced byintents between agents
forms and buttons exist because the other side is a screen. agents filling forms for you is the small version. when the other side has an agent too, there is no form at all: yours sends what you want, theirs answers, you say yes.
we wrote letters until the other side had a computer, and emails until it had a phone. the medium always follows the other side. now the other side is an agent.
the call as we know it.
replaced byagents meet first, people meet at the decision
a call today is a slot found in two calendars, a link, a waiting room, an hour, and notes nobody reads. most of that hour is two people trading what their agents could have traded.
when agents meet first, they settle what is already settled and bring back only what needs you. the call that is left is short, live and about the decision. and the new conversation models make even that call feel like talking to a person, not to a screen.
the one size interface.
replaced bytrue personalization
every system has its own way, and we learn all of them. personalization today is a theme and a dark mode. the ai browsers (comet in july 2025, chatgpt atlas in october 2025) are the small version: an agent clicking through screens that were built for you. the bigger one has started: agents can hand a screen to whatever shows it, through google's a2ui and mcp apps (jan 2026). with intelligence underneath, the interface is made for you, for this moment, from the same data. three people, three interfaces, none of them saved.
the feed.
replaced bychoices that are yours
for years we fought doomscrolling with apps that tweak the algorithm. it never worked, because doomscrolling is not manufactured. it is human behaviour, read back to us and ranked for whoever owns the feed.
an agent is the first thing that can rank for you, exactly the way you want. you might still scroll. but the choice is yours.
the api.
replaced bycontracts between agents
every piece of shared work needs an integration today: an api, a connector, a sync that breaks and leaks. agents on both sides agree a contract instead: what, why, for how long, with proof. no service in the middle.
the shipping container gave goods one shape any ship could carry. agents need one open shape for an agreement.
the operating system.
replaced byyour agent, on any device
we pick a side: this laptop or that one, this phone or that one. our files, apps and habits stay locked inside it, and switching costs a week.
it has started. in 2026 nubia showed a phone with no grid of apps, just one assistant you talk to, and reports say openai is exploring an agent-first phone of its own. but a new phone that only talks to its own maker's agent is the same lock, in a new shape.
when your agent is the layer between you and the machine, it goes with you to any screen, any device, any car. the operating system does not vanish. it becomes plumbing: a local model underneath, and intelligence itself showing you how to use any device.
the control panel.
replaced bymachines that speak for themselves
every machine has its own buttons, its own app, its own manual, and we learn each one. a machine with its own agent says what it needs: the filter is due, the battery is low, the cycle is done. your agent tells you only when it matters.
the privacy policy.
replaced bykeys you hold
privacy today is a terms page you skipped and a banner you clicked away. the company decides what it keeps. with your own keys, what leaves you is a grant you made: to whom, for what, until when, with a receipt of what went out. revoke it, and nothing more leaves.
eleven collapses. five parts of life. each needs something open.
the collapse will come with or without us. what replaces it is not decided yet. left alone, the new layer gets owned by whoever builds the biggest walls. here is where life changes, the part that changes most first, and what has to exist so the better thing wins.
how we work
agents on both sides that speak one open protocol, so work moves as intents between people, not as screens between companies.
how we talk to each other
agents that meet first, under keys people hold, so a call is only the part that needs two people.
what we pay attention to
an agent that answers only to you, with rules you can read, change and switch off.
who we trust
keys you hold, and contracts with proof between agents, with no one in the middle keeping a copy.
the things we live with
an open way for any device and any machine to join with its own agent, not a vendor's app.
that is the mission of openthings: an open protocol and open tools for all five, owned by no one.
ai brings great power. who holds it decides everything.
an agent that acts for you is a kind of power we have not handed to anything before. it can sit with the people it acts for, or with the few who build the biggest walls around it. openthings is my bet on the first.
the companies that own where people spend their time will not build it: they would throttle their own business. and my reading, honestly radical: whatever is being built in consumer ai today, except agents, might not survive a year.
that is why i am founding openthings, now. this is the right time not to build one more ai app that makes millions in revenue. nothing against those. it is the right time to work on the layer underneath: for people and ai, what the web was for people and information. open, owned by no one, there for everyone.
i have spent fourteen years in tech as a product thinker, six of them building with ai. the early signs say this future is coming. it still needs building.
i do not know if what i believe will happen. i can only try. it is a big dream, and i believe many, many people will share it with me.
sources.
- ai browsers: techcrunch, on comet and chatgpt atlas.
- agents that hand over a screen: a2ui.
- mcp apps: mcp blog, jan 2026.
- nubia's phone without an app grid: racunalniske novice.
- an agent-first openai phone: techcrunch, april 2026.
- the shipping container: wikipedia, malcom mclean and the ideal-x.
- the shifts, and what replaces each one, are my reading.