Opinion
Everyday utility will trump raw intelligence: The future of AI
The ultimate winner in the AI race won't be the one developing the most sophisticated intelligence, but the one who knows how to make it natural and simple, writes Yaron Cohen Tzemach.
The artificial intelligence arms race is in full swing. Each day brings announcements of new models, additional capabilities, and amazing potential applications. Just today, Elon Musk's Grok 3 joined the race, promising to be the smartest, fastest, and most advanced model yet. And alongside the growing AI family, there's already an infinite number of specialized bots designed for various purposes - one writes code, another turns sentences into images and videos, a third plans urban transportation systems, and a fourth builds marketing strategies. This world seems endless.
But the focus on intelligence metrics misses a critical point: the real winner in this field won't be determined by who can best analyze Shakespeare or write complex code, but by who can seamlessly integrate into our daily lives. The winner will be the one that speaks to the average person. The ordinary person doesn't write code, create marketing documents, or analyze biological data. They might nod in amazement when seeing demonstrations of new and advanced AI, but they'll ask themselves - practically speaking, how does this help me?
Much Noise, Little Real Change
Let's be honest: artificial intelligence hasn't really entered the life of the ordinary person yet. It's not changing the routine of someone who wakes up in the morning, works long hours, returns home tired, and just wants to be left alone.
Yes, it exists in the background. Netflix's algorithms know how to recommend shows, Waze deciphers the fastest way home, and phones correct our spelling mistakes. But most people don't wake up in the morning thinking: "How lucky I am to have AI, otherwise how would I manage?"
And this is exactly the problem with the current AI race - despite its presence, artificial intelligence hasn't truly become an inseparable part of daily life. Think about how we use technology day-to-day. Despite AI becoming more powerful, most of us still use our phones and computers in very basic ways - sending messages, browsing the internet, watching content, and managing routine tasks. In our daily lives, we make shopping and task lists, need to remember to pay bills and service the car, and don't really understand what's happening with our pension despite all attempts to teach us.
Moreover, even when we do use AI, most of us interact with it through web interfaces or manual typing, which isn't convenient. Instead of an intuitive user experience, we're still dependent on typing queries, manual searches, and adapting our instructions to the system rather than it adapting to us.
This exposes the central challenge: AI's potential is enormous, but if it can't integrate into routine life smoothly and naturally, it will remain something threatening and distant, suitable for uses beyond most people's daily lives.
Siri's Not There Yet
Siri is the perfect example of artificial intelligence that hasn't become a killer app. While it's been around for years, it hasn't truly integrated into people's routines. Why? Because it waits for commands, doesn't learn from users, doesn't connect all parts of digital life, and primarily doesn't offer services proactively.
It can't say: "I notice you leave for work every day at 7:30, want me to automatically start Waze?" And it also can't offer to transfer my savings from one bank to another. It doesn't suggest solutions before the user asks for them, and anyway, it's limited to Apple's ecosystem. The potential inherent in AI shows that Siri (and its siblings) is a half-baked tool that hasn't progressed enough since its launch.
What Will AI's Killer App Look Like?
A real killer app will be one that handles things people don't like dealing with. It will address the person who doesn't understand technology, perhaps even someone who has no desire or energy to understand it. It will speak to someone who's a bit tired, a bit lazy, looking for shortcuts. It will allow them to shed the chase after customer service centers, cancel subscriptions, or check invoices. Useful AI will be organic to life - it will do all this independently. It will also understand user habits; for example, if someone always forgets to reload their transit card, it can offer to do this automatically each month. It will receive their messages and say "Mom wants you to call her, I told her you're busy and will call later." It will hear them shout in despair "we're out of milk" and automatically add milk to the shopping list.
Such an application must be transparent and unnoticeable. Just as no one rewrites Google's search engine code - it's just there, artificial intelligence will need to operate without requiring users to type or create specific instructions each time. It will work in the background, understand contexts, and provide solutions automatically and continuously.
Smart Operating Systems - The Next Stage
Another killer app that could lead the revolution is one that will replace familiar operating systems. Imagine a world where you no longer need to open apps on your phone - just tell the AI what you want, and it provides the solution instantly. In cars, there will be no need to touch screens - the vehicle will understand traffic conditions, respond to road situations, and provide a more intuitive driving experience. On computers, we won't need browsers - we'll just tell it to display what we want, and it will know how to present it according to our personal preferences. On TV, we won't need to endlessly browse through programs - we'll simply request, for example, "show me movies with the line 'the sky is beautiful today,'" and the system will create a relevant watch list, from all existing movies.
If this happens, the technology use we know - shaped by Microsoft, Apple, and Google - will come to an end. It won't be a world of apps and menus anymore, but of natural, smart, continuous, and efficient conversation with a system that truly knows and understands us.
The Revolution's Market Impact
When and if this happens, the implications will be enormous. App stores like Google Play and the App Store might become obsolete because separate apps for each service won't be necessary. The digital advertising market, based on searches and targeted ads, will need to reinvent itself if there's no more traditional interaction with search engines. Brands will need to find new ways to reach consumers when all content is accessed through a central AI interface.
It's important to note that this isn't related to future development of AI with artificial bodies. This is about artificial intelligence designed for everyday people and not necessarily for the world of work or physical autonomous systems.
Who Will Win the Race?
The winner won't be the one developing the most sophisticated intelligence, but the one who knows how to make it natural and simple. Artificial intelligence is undoubtedly one of the great inventions of our time, but for it to be truly relevant to everyone, it must realize its practical potential and integrate into daily life, not just serve as an advanced work tool. Its success will lie in its ability to become intuitive, beneficial, and present in everyone's lives, just like electricity or the internet. When that happens, no one will need to talk about artificial intelligence anymore - it will simply be there.
The writer is a researcher and lecturer in the field of entrepreneurship and business and the author of the book "From Plato to Amazon - How Today's Great Entrepreneurs Think (Hebrew edition, English translation forthcoming).
