Is AI About to Have Its Smartphone Moment - When No One is Ready for It
There's that moment when you move from 'what's the point of that?' to when you get it. I like to consider myself an early adopter, but I can recall a few instances over the years where I've had the 'Oh Now I get it!' moment. I remember the week (admittedly, I can't recall the exact date, but it was late 2006), I finally grasped the concept of smartphones.
I'd been perfectly happy with my BlackBerry (some would say that was a Smartphone) - it did emails brilliantly, had a proper keyboard, and felt professional. When the iPhone launched, I was sceptical. "It's just a phone with a big screen," I thought. 'It's all touchscreen. "Why would I need that when I've got a laptop?"
I attended a presentation about these things called "apps" and couldn't see the point. "Why would I want cut-down software on my phone when I've got proper programs on my PC?" Where's it going to store all the data? The presenter was enthusiastic about apps for everything - weather, games, and productivity tools. I sat there thinking, "This is solving problems I don't have."
Then I got my first iPhone (I switched over to the dark side - Android after iPhone 3).
Within a week, everything clicked. I wasn't using a phone with internet access - I was carrying the entire internet in my pocket. Apps weren't cut-down software; they were purpose-built tools that worked better than anything on my PC because they understood context, location, and how I actually moved through my day. Not long after I joined Twitter, I also joined Facebook - Social Media was born.
That "Oh, NOW I get it!" moment is about to happen with AI.
What Agentic AI Actually Is
Most people think AI means ChatGPT generating text or creating images. That's like thinking the internet was just email.
Agentic AI refers to artificial intelligence systems that can act autonomously to pursue goals or tasks, often across multiple steps, without requiring constant human input. The word agentic comes from agent, implying that the system behaves like an "agent" capable of making decisions and taking action on your behalf.
Here's the crucial difference:
Traditional AI
Responds to prompts or inputs
One-step tasks (e.g., "summarise this text" or "write a headline")
You manage the workflow
I often liken my Chat GPT to an Intern; it's excellent, but it needs close supervision.
Agentic AI
Sets and pursues goals over time.
Can plan, decide, take action, and reflect
Works through multi-step tasks (e.g., "Research the top 5 trends in my industry, draft a LinkedIn post, and schedule it")
Manages its workflow
Real-World Example:
Let's say you run a small consultancy business.
Traditional AI: You ask ChatGPT to "write an email about our new service."
Agentic AI: You give it a goal, such as "Plan and execute a campaign to promote our new strategic planning service." It might:
Research the market demand for strategic planning.
Identify potential prospects in your network.
Draft personalised outreach emails
Schedule follow-up sequences and monitor responses to adjust messaging.
Book qualified prospects into your calendar
Common Features of Agentic AI Systems:
Goal-oriented: You give them an outcome, not just a task
Autonomy: They make decisions without micromanagement
Tools & memory: They can use external tools (calendars, browsers, APIs) and remember context
Reflection: They evaluate their results and revise plans
Think of it as having a highly capable personal assistant who never sleeps, never forgets, and can access virtually any information or service on the internet.
What's Already Rolling Out
This isn't science fiction - it's happening right now:
Opera Neon has launched the first "AI agentic browser", where AI agents browse, research, and synthesise information for you without you ever seeing search results.
AI travel agents are booking entire holidays based on your preferences, budget, and calendar, handling flights, hotels, restaurants, and activities to suit your needs.
Shopping assistants are making purchasing decisions autonomously. Just before Christmas, I used my AI assistant (I call her Elin) for gift ideas for my wife. I gave her our budget, my wife's preferences, previous successful gifts, and what hadn't worked. She recommended products from brands I'd never heard of - FOREO and La Bonne Brosse. Both were perfect. I never visited a website, never compared prices, never read reviews. The AI only left me to handle the purchase and payment - with agentic AI, it will do that last bit too.
Customer service agents resolve complex queries from initial contact through to resolution, escalating to a human supervisor only when genuinely necessary.
The Consumer Apps That Will Make AI Click for Everyone
The "Oh, NOW I get it!" moment for consumers will come from everyday apps that make life dramatically easier:
Personal Finance AI that doesn't just track spending but actively manages your money - switching utilities when better deals appear, automatically investing spare cash, negotiating bills, and even handling tax returns. Imagine never having to think about money management again.
Health & Wellness AI that books your medical appointments, manages prescriptions, coordinates with specialists, tracks symptoms, and even negotiates with insurance companies. Your health will become truly managed, not just monitored.
Home Management AI that handles everything from grocery delivery and meal planning to maintenance scheduling and energy optimisation. It learns your family's preferences and manages your entire domestic life.
Social Coordination AI that manages your relationships - remembering birthdays, organising social events, maintaining friendships, and even dating (matching, conversation, and date planning). A Social life becomes a lot easier to manage.
When consumers experience these apps, they'll have their lightbulb moment: "This isn't just convenient - it's life-changing." Remember what happened when Online Banking moved to the smartphone app, Banks started shutting their branches. People will wonder how they ever managed without AI agents handling the tedious parts of life.
How Consumer Adoption Will Drive Business Behaviour
Once consumers experience agentic AI in their personal lives, they'll expect the same level of service from all businesses:
Instant, intelligent responses - No more "we'll get back to you in 24 hours." Consumers will expect immediate, contextual solutions.
Proactive service - Instead of reactive customer service, businesses will need AI that anticipates needs and solves problems before customers even realise they have them.
Hyper-personalisation - Mass marketing becomes irrelevant when consumers expect AI-level understanding of their specific context and preferences.
Seamless integration - Consumers will become much less tolerant of friction. They'll expect businesses to work seamlessly with their personal AI assistants.
This consumer expectation will force every business to become AI-native or risk feeling antiquated and cumbersome in comparison. Consumer trends often drive B2B behaviours; it won't be any different this time.
What's in the Pipeline
We are in the very early stages; many of the agentic apps on the market now will die. Within the next 18 months, we'll see:
Personal AI assistants manage your entire business operations while you sleep - handling enquiries, scheduling meetings, processing orders, and managing suppliers.
Autonomous sales agents that identify prospects, qualify leads, present solutions, and close deals without human intervention.
AI project managers coordinate teams, manage timelines, and deliver complex projects from start to finish.
Supply chain AI that predicts demand, fully manages inventory, negotiates with suppliers, and optimises logistics in real-time.
The Use Cases That Will Create the Lightbulb Moment
Here's what will make people say, "Oh, NOW I get it!":
Holiday Planning: Instead of spending hours researching destinations, comparing flights, and reading hotel reviews, you'll say, "Plan me a week in Japan in April for two people, budget £5,000, we love culture and food but hate crowds." Your AI agent will handle everything from flights to restaurant reservations, even learning your preferences along the way. This frees you to focus on anticipation and connection rather than logistics. Travel businesses will pivot from being booking platforms to becoming experience curators and providers of local expertise.
Personal Shopping: Your AI assistant will manage your entire wardrobe, groceries, and household needs. "I need a smart casual outfit for a client dinner next Tuesday, and we're running low on healthy meal ingredients for the week." It handles everything from style coordination to grocery delivery, learning your preferences, dietary requirements, and schedule. This liberates you from decision fatigue and routine purchasing. Retailers will pivot from selling products to becoming lifestyle management partners and personal curation services.
Business Development: Your AI will identify potential clients, research their challenges, craft personalised outreach, and schedule meetings - all while you're focusing on delivery. This liberates you to spend time on strategy, relationship building, and creative problem-solving. Businesses will shift their focus from lead generation services to outcome delivery and facilitating strategic partnerships.
Content Creation: Rather than asking AI to write individual posts, you'll say, "Manage my LinkedIn presence to position me as a sustainability expert," and it'll research trends, create content, engage with comments, and build relationships autonomously. This allows you to focus on developing genuine expertise and authentic thought leadership. Marketing agencies will shift their focus from content production to strategy development and brand positioning.
Customer Service: A potential client will contact your business at 2 AM with a complex query. Your AI agent will understand their needs, present solutions, handle objections, and complete the sale, sending you a summary in the morning. This frees you to focus on complex problem-solving and relationship management. Service businesses will pivot from transaction processing to consultative guidance and strategic advisory roles.
The Behavioural Shift No One Sees Coming
My Christmas shopping experience revealed something profound: I wasn't searching anymore. I wasn't trying to be "found" by brands through SEO or advertising. Instead, I was being recommended solutions based on a deep understanding of my specific context.
This represents a fundamental shift from "being found" to "being recommended." Businesses have spent decades optimising to be discovered through search engines, social media, and advertising. But agentic AI bypasses all of that. It recommends products based on actual fit and value, rather than marketing spend or SEO rankings.
Authenticity becomes crucial because AI agents will be able to see through marketing hype. They'll evaluate based on real performance, genuine reviews, and actual value delivered. The businesses that thrive will be those that focus on being genuinely excellent rather than being clever at getting found.
Why No One is Ready
The gap between current AI understanding and what's coming is enormous. Most businesses are still debating whether to use ChatGPT for content creation, while agentic AI is about to transform entire customer journeys.
I see business owners worried about AI making their content "sound robotic", while AI agents are preparing to handle their entire sales process. They're optimising websites for search engines while agentic AI is making search irrelevant.
It's like businesses in 2006 debating whether to invest heavily in the desktop e-commerce experience, while the iPhone was about to make mobile commerce essential.
The Speed of Transformation
This will happen faster than the smartphone revolution. The necessary infrastructure already exists, including internet connectivity, payment systems, and cloud computing. We don't need to build new networks or convince people to buy new devices. Agentic AI runs on the technology people already have.
The smartphone took nearly a decade to reach mass adoption. Agentic AI is expected to achieve the same penetration in 2-3 years, as the barriers to adoption are significantly lower.
What This Means for Business
The implications are staggering:
Marketing strategies built around "being found" become irrelevant when AI agents do the finding.
Sales processes designed for human interactions need a complete redesign for AI-mediated decisions.
Customer service must evolve to work seamlessly with AI agents that never sleep and have perfect memory.
Business operations can be managed by AI that optimises continuously and never has an off day.
However, the challenge for businesses will be to start preparing now, not when the lightbulb moment happens for everyone else.
The Clarity Advantage
In my conversations with business owners, I'm seeing the same pattern I observed during the early days of the internet. Those who understood the transformation early and positioned themselves accordingly thrived. Those who dismissed it as hype or waited for "proof" found themselves scrambling to catch up.
The businesses that will succeed in the agentic AI era are those gaining clarity now about:
How their customers will discover and evaluate solutions
What authentic value looks like in an AI-mediated world
How to position themselves for recommendation rather than discovery
What new capabilities do they need to develop
This isn't about implementing AI tools - it's about understanding how AI will fundamentally change customer behaviour and business operations.
The Moment of Truth
We're about to witness the fastest technology adoption in history. Within 24 months, agentic AI will move from "interesting technology" to "how did we ever manage without this?"
The question isn't whether this transformation will happen. It's whether your business will be prepared when everyone else has their "Oh, NOW I get it!" moment.
Because by then, it might be too late to catch up.
What's your business doing now to prepare for a world where AI agents handle discovery, evaluation, and purchasing decisions? Are you building for the world that's coming, or optimising for the one that's about to disappear?
If you're feeling uncertain about how to prepare your business for this transformation, let's have a conversation. The time to gain clarity isn't after the lightbulb moment - it's now.
DM me for a chat about positioning your business for the agentic AI revolution.
