Western markets never really got along with super apps the way the APAC market did. With AI agents in the mix, though, conditions are ripe for super apps attempt #2.
For starters, the world is quite saturated by now with mobile apps: roughly 9 million, if you’re counting, and each of them competing for slivers of dwindling attention spans. There are some signs that maybe we’re near the tipping point towards super apps in the West. Over in finance, things like digital wallets and frictionless payment platforms have shifted the focus to solutions that unify transactions in one interface. The UK government even wants to combine the ticket booking apps of all different UK railways operators into one retail app.
The board is set. The pieces are moving. But we’re not quite at APAC-levels of proclivity for super apps in the vein of WeChat, Grab, or Paytm, which integrate everything from finances and medical appointments to ride-hailing and social into singular interfaces.
A tale of two vastly different app ecosystems (the West vs. the East)
There were many undercurrents that propelled the creation of super apps in China. One was China’s high-cost and relatively unreliable broadband infrastructure, which spurred the country towards a mobile-first ecosystem. But even when Chinese citizens became connected via mobile internet, online marketplaces initially stagnated without proper credit card payment systems.
Alibaba changed that with Alipay, orchestrating millions of merchandise sales on its online store. Online payments quickly expanded to chat apps, where users could send each other money directly, revealing opportunities to bring new services into apps. Some pretty ingenious use cases came out of that and services became much more personalised. Third-party vendors started integrating mini-shops directly into the super apps. It drastically sped up transactions and customer conversion rates.
Things looked a lot different in the West: an app landscape fractured across hybridised desktop and mobile devices. People seemed to roll with this status quo throughout the 2000s and 2010s, and today, many in the West are even extremely loyal to brands. That’s not something you turn around quickly, but we’re starting to see more consolidation of features over time – Meta adding dating to Facebook, Spotify adding video, Uber adding trains and flights, and more recently, Rocket Companies aspiring to become a ‘a housing super app’ after buying real estate listing site, Redfin.
Agentic super apps
So there’s some (admittedly disparate) momentum for super apps. If they’re going to take off in the West this time, the industry will need to go even further with personalisation. This is where AI agents come in.
AI agents don’t just do aggregation. They learn from you, including all the restaurants you frequent, like the Thai chain you love. And maybe it sees you have a habit of ordering the Pad See Ew, which you may well be hungry for after a late-night concert. Or maybe you’re looking for a laptop, but you’ve historically prioritised battery life and a matte screen for outdoor work. You can easily imagine how an agent would make recommendations accordingly based on these preferences.
With how fast agents are evolving – though obviously not without hurdles – we could eventually have an army of specialised AI agents. They could all integrate with one another across a vast network, and even exist inside the interfaces customers are used to. If someone prefers the look of Spotify or Apple Music to the other, they don’t have to abandon that preference.
The super app future doesn’t look so distant when you think about how agents could democratise app development. Rather than build an app from scratch, the next big ride-sharing company of tomorrow could use an API to hook up its ordering system to an AI agent. This agent could then generate code that works for every relevant platform or operating system that users might be on. This wouldn’t make developers irrelevant; you still need engineers to build platforms that creators can use to make interfaces. But it would shift the emphasis from coding to ideation.
Technology should make our lives more convenient
As much as agents brighten up possibilities for super apps, user experience will still be the deciding factor for whether those super apps live or die. Interacting with an AI agent in a super app doesn’t have to mean voice-only commands à la Alexa. Physical touch will always play a crucial role, because humans like to feel tactile feedback and see information displayed visually. They want to swipe through menus, pinch-zoom maps, and see ETAs on their food delivery. This is something app builders would have to bear in mind.
At a time when apps are so fragmented, it’s a good time to start thinking about super apps again, but not for the sake of yet another tech trend. Like any technology, AI agents and super apps should make people’s lives easier. The true value in the agent-super app combo is empowering the digital day-to-day journey for both consumers and creators. It’s high time we unshackle ourselves from closed ecosystems and look to something more interconnected.
