While most companies and developers in the financial world are only just now discovering the potential of mobile applications, they may be too far behind the evolutionary curve already. According to a recent study, smartphone users are less keen on installing additional applications to do the things they want on a regular basis. Furthermore, there is a large number of people who just stick to pre-installed apps loaded onto their phone, seeing no value in installing anything extra.
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Introducing The Post-App World
As a mobile application developer, it becomes increasingly difficult to make your creation stand out in the vast ocean of offerings. Considering how nearly half of the smartphone consumers seem to rely on less than five applications for day-to-day operations, the competition for the user’s attention span is heating up.
Things have gotten so much out of hand that we can call the current ecosystem “app-fatigued”. Every little action or service requires its own proprietary application and consumers are getting tired of cumbersome solutions. Most smartphone users would prefer to stick to one application that can fit all of their needs.
According to a recent Comcast study, a paradigm shift is almost upon us, during which people will no longer rely on mobile applications for specific information. Instead, smart agents and virtual assistants will take care of 40% of all mobile interactions, which is quite a staggering amount.
Artificial intelligence will become the new norm by 2020 and through this form of technology, smart agents will be created. Similar to human interaction, a smart agent can generate decisions or suggestions autonomously and it will learn about the owner’s behavior and thought processes as more time elapses.
Should this scenario ever come to fruition – and it is not unlikely – smartphone applications will become obsolete sooner rather than later. One should not think of this concept as a way to replace mobile apps, but more as a logical evolution of technology and the Internet of things.
Consumers will keep using smartphones and tablets for a long time to come, and applications will always be available. However, for developers, the game will be changing, as they can start creating a single-codebase web portal through which apps and smart agents can gather information and communicate with the user.
But What Does It Mean For Bitcoin?
It’s difficult to gauge the impact of virtual agents on the Bitcoin ecosystem. Up until this point, most Bitcoin users are relying on websites or individual applications to find the information they need at that time. Creating a consolidated platform through which all of this information can flow freely could make Bitcoin more approachable by mainstream consumers.
Artificial intelligence and virtual agents will make everyday life a whole lot more interesting to say the least. Even though most consumers are steering away from human interaction wherever possible, a smart agent would provide a similar experience without the human element. Whether or not that will impact Bitcoin in a positive or negative manner remains to be seen.
