Silicon Valley giants like Amazon, Meta, and OpenAI are racing to develop “operating systems” for AI-powered devices—and 2026 is likely the year these efforts will start to take off. The devices are largely built around a future where AI agents can take actions on a user’s behalf, without requiring them to visit an app or website.

In theory, this sounds like an idyllic relationship between humans and technology. But it could rewrite the business model for a huge swath of consumer tech companies.

Instead of tapping through apps filled with ads and upsells, AI devices promise that a user will be able to ask for an outcome, and get it. An AI assistant will—in theory—book your travel, order you lunch, or restock your paper towels. It should be able to figure out which service has what you need and which can offer it quickly and cheaply.

Leaving aside the nontrivial problem that AI agents today can be fairly unreliable, AI-powered operating systems also threaten to separate companies from their users. That could be a nightmare for app developers.

Companies like Uber and DoorDash have historically relied on keeping consumers in their apps, where they can serve ads, upsell other services, and build loyalty to keep users coming back.

AI agents may strip many of these businesses down to their core services, and reduce the need for users to visit the apps at all. So even if a user pays the same price for a DoorDash delivery made through a pair of AI glasses, the company could still miss out on opportunities to sell them additional services down the road.

Anjney Midha, an investor and board member at Sesame—the AI device startup cofounded by former Oculus leaders including Brendan Iribe—says that if companies don’t have “deep control over the supply of their product,” it is going to be very hard for them to operate in a world where they have to reach users through an AI agent.

Historically, a key part of building a successful operating system has been creating a thriving developer platform. Companies have to give developers a good reason to build apps for their platforms. But the relationship has not been without tension. While Apple has historically given developers a way to reach lots of users, it’s also taken up to a 30 percent cut of all in-app purchases.

Some tech companies are reluctant to let AI agents from smaller startups stand between them and their users.

Rabbit, the startup behind the buzzy R1 device that debuted at CES 2024 (and received negative reviews), already hit this wall. CEO Jesse Lyu told WIRED that major app developers like Uber weren’t exactly eager to cooperate with the company early on, declining to grant the startup API access that would have let the R1 hail rides directly. As a result, Rabbit built workarounds to let its R1 devices tap apps like Uber without formal access.

“You have to understand why they’re not super happy: They sell fucking advertisements. That’s where many of them make money,” he said, speaking of the larger tech industry. “They decided we were too small, and it wasn’t worth it for them to work with us.”

Perplexity has run into this issue as well with early versions of its shopping agent. In November, Amazon sued Perplexity over an agent it offered that could purchase items on behalf of users. Amazon, which is investing in its own shopping agents, demanded Perplexity stop scraping its site, making it nearly impossible for the startup’s agent to buy products on Amazon.

But other marketplaces and app developers appear willing to work with larger platforms. Companies like DoorDash, Instacart, and Expedia have signed up to build early forms of AI apps within ChatGPT, while Ticketmaster, Uber, and OpenTable debuted as early agentic features for Alexa+. The partnerships show that many tech companies are cautiously optimistic about the potential for novel app experiences that are intermediated by AI tools.

That said, ChatGPT’s apps are still in their infancy, and relatively few people today are using the chatbot to purchase products. In a September report, the company said just 2.1 percent of users were seeking information about purchasing products via ChatGPT. The company is also exploring rolling out ads for free users, suggesting the internet’s favored business model might not be going away anytime soon.

Midha argues it’s too early to predict the final shape of the AI app ecosystem. He says the tech industry is still figuring out the business model for AI, and it may look very different from the previous era of the Internet.

“This is something that every major AI platform is wrestling with today: They all want to make their platform super useful, but how do you pay for it?” said Midha. “If the consumer is not going to pay, then the ad model needs to be contended with, but it just might not work here. That’s an unanswered question.”

OpenAI Research VP Departs

In other news: OpenAI VP of research Jerry Tworek told staff on Monday that he’s leaving the company, and shared a version of the note publicly on X. In his message, Tworek said he was departing to “explore types of research that are hard to do at OpenAI.”

Internally, Tworek has faced difficulty getting the resources for his next big research bet, WIRED has learned. Tworek disagreed with OpenAI’s Chief Scientist, Jakub Pachocki, on the research direction for the company, according to two sources familiar with the matter.

OpenAI’s leaders ultimately sided with the chief scientist, the sources said. This led to a reorganization of OpenAI’s research team in December which left Tworek with less resources than he would have liked.

“We’re deeply grateful for Jerry’s research leadership and pushing the frontier of reasoning,” said OpenAI’s Chief Research Officer, Mark Chen, in a statement to WIRED. “His impact will be felt across OpenAI and our models for years to come. We’re very excited about our 2026 roadmap and advancing work toward an automated scientist.”

It’s unclear what research bet Tworek was pushing for, or where exactly he’ll go to pursue it. He hasn’t decided on his next move yet, per sources familiar.

Still, Tworek’s departure is another signal of how contested research priorities have become inside the world’s most influential AI labs—especially as the number of well-capitalized competitors grows. As OpenAI faces increased pressure from Google and Anthropic, it is placing its research bets extremely carefully.

Other former OpenAI research leaders have gone on to raise billions of dollars to conduct their ambitious research ideas independently, or land massive contracts with Meta, Anthropic, and Google.

The larger question is, Which AI lab will deliver the next breakthrough in AI? In his time at OpenAI, Tworek contributed to ChatGPT and the company’s AI reasoning models—two of the biggest breakthroughs in AI over the last several years. OpenAI still has extraordinary access to capital, computing power, and research talent—but its competition has never been fiercer.

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