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What Comes After Mobile? Meta’s Andrew Bosworth on AI and Consumer Tech
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For the past 20 years, consumer technology has been shaped by the same form factors: apps and touchscreens on smartphones. But advances in AI, wearables, and hardware could introduce an entirely new stack—creating a more agentic, adaptive, and immersive computing experience for users everywhere. Drawing on his early days building Facebook’s News Feed to his work today on smart glasses and AR headsets, Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth joins a16z Growth General Partner David George to share how he's translated emerging technologies into products people use and love. He also explores how breakthroughs in AI and hardware could turn the existing app model on its head, introduce entirely new competitive dynamics and business models for startups, and usher in a post-mobile phone era. If we get it right, Bosworth says, the next wave of consumer tech won’t run on taps and swipes—it’ll run on intent. Read more, including a full transcript, here: a16z.com/after-mobile-consumer-tech-andrew-bosworth [00:00:00] The future of content consumption [00:02:18] Building great products on the backs of tech trends [00:08:24] The evolution of Reality Labs and imagining a post-mobile world [00:11:36] Building a bridge to the post-mobile era [00:15:00] Does AI turn the app model on its head? [00:21:28] Competing on performance and price in the AI era [00:24:27] Open source, Llama, and commoditizing your complements [00:27:49] Risks to the post-mobile vision [00:32:41] Committing to the vision In our conversation series AI Revolution, we ask industry leaders how they’re harnessing the power of generative AI and steering their companies through the next platform shift. Find more content from our AI Revolution series on www.a16z.com/AIRevolution Please note that the content here is for informational purposes only; should NOT be taken as legal, business, tax, or investment advice or be used to evaluate any investment, digital asset, or security; and is not directed at any investors or potential investors in any a16z fund. a16z and its affiliates may maintain investments in the companies discussed. For more details please see a16z.com/disclosures.
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The future of content consumption
"every single interface that I interact with, every single problem space that I'm trying to trying to solve are going to be made easier by virtue of this new technology. [Music] Boss, thanks for being ..."
Building great products on the backs of tech trends
"at sort of piecing together various big technology shifts into new product experiences. So in the case of you know Facebook early days for you obviously you famously were part of the team that created..."
The evolution of Reality Labs and imagining a post-mobile world
"information. Let's talk about like reality labs and the suite of products. So what it is today. So you have Quest headsets, you have the smart glasses, and then you know on the the far end of the spec..."
Building a bridge to the post-mobile era
"today. It's how I operate my home. It's how I use it in my car. I use it like for work. I use it for it's it's everywhere, right? Yeah. And the world has adapted itself to the phone. So like, you know..."
Does AI turn the app model on its head?
"biggest question I have is whether the entire app model, cuz we were imagining a very phone-like app model um for these devices, you know, admittedly a very different interaction design, input and con..."
Competing on performance and price in the AI era
"Yeah, it'll be very messy. I don't know it's avoidable. Um because I think once consumers start to get into these tight loops where more and more of their interactions are being moderated by an AI, yo..."
Open source, Llama, and commoditizing your complements
"leading from the front on this idea of open source. Yeah. Um and so talk about some of your efforts uh on that side of of the business and then what is the ideal sort of market structure of the AI mod..."
Risks to the post-mobile vision
"conflict. So societal progress plus business model alignment. It's all together. It's all it's all going the same direction. It's awesome. It's great. I want to shift gears to um talking about like th..."
Committing to the vision
"things about this and this is where uh Mark just deserves so much credit is we're true believers. Like we have actual conviction. Yeah. Mark believes this is the next thing. It needs to happen and it ..."