The API-ification of Everything
How Intent-Based Computing Kills the App
Apps as we know them are changing. We believe the discrete, siloed experiences we navigate daily will collapse into something far more intuitive. Companies will become infrastructure providers, offering their services through APIs while one GUI, one operating system, leads and displays everything.
Currently OpenAI seems best positioned to accomplish this, given the hardware device they're working on and its holistic (almost operating system-like approach) to building ChatGPT.
Companies product teams will be rethought and the roles of designers, as there may be no product, visually, to design. But instead systems. They'll shift focus primarily to designing systems of people and infrastructure and automations and operations.
We're approaching the end of an era that began with a metaphor.
Desktop metaphor
The desktop metaphor emerged in the late 1980s out of necessity. Early computers were alien to most people, so designers borrowed familiar objects. Folders held files. Applications lived in discrete spaces. The trash can sat in the corner. These metaphors helped users understand unfamiliar technology by relating it to their physical world.
Apple perfected this approach with the iPhone. Skeumorphic design made digital interfaces feel tangible. Leather textures, realistic buttons, and carefully crafted app icons all served the same purpose: helping people bridge the gap between the physical and digital worlds.
We don't need these training wheels anymore. Users are digitally native. They want technology to work and get out of the way. Yet, every experience and app we interact with still is contained within a small 180x180px app icon that must be intentionally opened and closed. Most often, never connected or contextually aware of another one.
Intent over applications
We'll stop opening apps. We'll state our intent instead. "I need a place to stay in Tokyo next week." The system understands. Multiple providers compete at the API level. Availability. Price. User preferences. The best option surfaces automatically. We never consciously choose platforms. We never relearn interfaces. We express what we want and it happens.
We're approaching the end of an era that began with a metaphor.
The interface problem
Millions of design systems have created millions of variations, millions of opinion. Booking flows. Checkout experiences. Date pickers. Search bars. Yet data proves there are optimal versions. The highest converting. The simplest. The most tested.
We're constantly relearning interfaces for identical tasks. Booking.com versus Airbnb versus the Amex portal. Fundamentally the same thing. Book flight, book hotel, book accommodation. But each platform forces us to decode different layouts for the same core patterns.
This is wasted cognitive load. We know what works. The solutions exist.
Infrastructure
If OpenAI is to dominate and become the next primary leader in operating system, taking over the interface layer, it still won't replace businesses.
Take AirBnb for example. OpenAI won't directly offer you accommodation or offer to host your home. Companies like Airbnb will keep all operational responsibilities. Customer relationships. Dispute resolution. Building trust with hosts and travelers. Building highly complex backend systems and operations that make the whole thing function - but it won’t need to pour investment into designing its app.
This follows the Apple model. Apple became the destination for experiences without becoming every business. OpenAI becomes the interface layer. Everything else stays the same.
The technical foundation already exists. Technologies like the Model Context Protocol (MCP) provide the universal connection layer - an interoperable spec that lets different services plug into an LLM-native operating environment. With seamless API integration at scale, companies plug into the system. They keep running their businesses. They just don't design the front end anymore.
Democratizing
Design-focused companies like Airbnb will resist this. They've invested heavily in their interface. They want control over how it feels.
Companies who haven't made investments in product design teams will embrace it. Booking.com has a far from perfect interface but still owns a huge portion of the market. Now they get world-class design automatically. Every service gets the same fluid, natural, highest-converting components.
This levels the playing field. Companies can't win on design alone anymore - and at the same time a company won't lose just because they didn't have a strong product design team. They compete on what matters: the quality of the actual offering.
The best service will win. Not the best-designed app.
Where this leads
Users get consistency across every interaction, no longer forced to relearn how different apps work when they all serve the same fundamental purpose. Companies can redirect massive resources from interface design to operational excellence, shifting focus from pixel pushing to the business logic that actually creates value and differentiates their business.
This democratizes everything by ensuring the best business ideas and service offerings win, since every company essentially gains access to a world class design team. We're moving toward a world where execution matters more than polish, where substance beats style, and where the companies that truly serve people best will rise to the top.