Amazon devices chief Panos Panay sees a future where AI devices replace the need to use apps

Amazon is placing its bets on ambient computing, not apps, as the future of personal AI.

Alongside the launch of the company’s new AI wearables from Bee, Panos Panay, who serves as Amazon’s SVP of Devices, Alexa & Leo, took the stage at TechCrunch Disrupt on Thursday to talk more in depth about where he sees personal computing headed.

“A lot of times, what you’re doing right now — what we all do right now — is we have to remember what we’re asking our tool to do for us,” Panay began, explaining that this is how we engage with our modern smartphones. “It’s like point, shoot, return,” Panay continued. “I think where we’re headed is a world [that] starts with ambient devices.”

By “ambient devices,” he means those that work quietly in the background, using sensors and AI to help you figure out what needs to be done, instead of the other way around, where you’re telling the device what you need to do.

“As it works in the background, you’re able to stay more present. You’re able to get more done. You’re about to spend more time with people … you’re not afraid if you miss something. It’s incredibly powerful,” Panay said.

Amazon’s biggest entry into this space is the set of new Bee devices it introduced on Thursday, which include a band you can wear on your wrist or detach to wear as a pendant, as well as a new credit-card-sized device that attaches magnetically to the back of your smartphone.

These gadgets passively record audio and take notes about your day, finding the to-dos, reminders, and insights you may later need to refer back to. To balance the need to be useful with user privacy, Bee’s devices don’t actually store the raw audio from your conversations; they process the audio in real time and then delete it when done. Transcripts of conversations are encrypted using keys that your device creates and controls. That means no one else, including Amazon employees, can access those files unless you intentionally share them.

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