Paytm’s Vijay Shekhar Sharma predicts AI agents will eat apps by 2027

In a bold technological forecast, Paytm founder and CEO Vijay Shekhar Sharma has declared that 2027 will mark the "massification" of artificial intelligence, predicting a paradigm shift where autonomous AI agents will replace apps as the primary way humans interact with computing.

In a post of X, the fintech founder outlined a vision where the era of tapping smartphone screens and clicking desktop software gives way to hyper-capable personal assistants integrated directly into device operating systems.

”By the end of 2026, we will have super-capable AI assistants—personal agents irresistibly good at performing all the tasks we do on our phones and computers,” he wrote, adding, “In 2027, organizations and businesses will rush to launch agents, just as they launched websites and apps in the early internet and mobile-internet days.”

Sharma said that just as touchscreen taps replaced desktop web clicks during the mobile internet wave of the 2010s, AI agents will displace the current app grid. Instead of jumping between software programs to perform tasks, mainstream users will delegate complex multi-step workflows to personal digital agents.

"Apple will announce OS access to trusted agents, just as it allowed other apps to handle calling/SPAM management,” notes Sharma, adding,"Android will have to open up and allow third-party agents at the same level as Gemini."

Beyond hardware and software changes, Sharma foresees a fundamental shift in user identity: "Just as today we are identified by phone number, email, or social handle, we will have our own agents that interact with the agentic world around us."

"2027 will be the massification of AI," Sharma stated. "2026 will seal the lead of machines generating code over programmers. And we will start our journey of AGI."