Satya Nadella on the future of the Web: "AI is going to happen"

A new wave of virtual agents, the likes of Cortana, Google and Siri is preparing to take over the web and provide AI assisted search features that will profoundly change the way we use the web. This prediction was made on stage, last week, at the O’Reilly Next: Economy Summit, by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella.

During the summit, Nadella shared his vision of a web in which text input becomes less relevant, compared to using natural voice commands. Even further, mobile apps could one day fall in second place, behind built-in agents like Cortana, and assume the form of operators, rather than locators of information.

Web searches will be handled by agents designed to interact with service apps, as nadella puts it: “It's still browsing, but it's different because you're not invoking every app”. This could be interpreted in a way in which apps could be primarily used as end-point operators, to finalize financial transactions, bookings and ordering, as well as the delivery of information funneled through the agents.

In this context, it’s plausible to believe that Nadella is just a messenger, and that the course has already been plotted for AI to be further available to consumers. Microsoft Windows 10 makes a strong case for virtual assistants on a desktop operating system, especially one that emcompasses desktop, laptop, 2-in-1, and tablet devices, like Microsoft’s own line of Surface devices, such as the Surface Book and Pro.

While the argument for desktop virtual assistants has been made, there is however a few speed bumps in the process, particularly in reference to Apple products, where the separation between mobile and desktop is traditionally far more pronounced than it is for other industry players like Microsoft and Google.

This separation naturally means that Apple will have to go through certain changes, and even break a few rules of its own. With that said, the same rules that apply today, might not matter as much, five or ten years down the line, when a different level of computing will be available to consumers.