Former Apple CEO Admits: This Is the First Real Competitor to the iPhone Maker in Decades!

The First Real Competitor to the iPhone Maker in Decades!                                  

The former Apple CEO predicted the end of the era of apps and the beginning of the era of agents. What is it?

Apple is facing a powerful new competitor in the age of artificial intelligence, according to the company's former CEO. Speaking at the Zeta Live conference in New York City on Thursday, former Apple CEO John Sculley said that OpenAI represents the "first real competitor" Apple has faced "in many decades." Sculley said of Apple, "AI has not been their particular strength," according to the report.

In some ways, Apple appears to have fallen behind in the AI ​​race, lacking the constant product updates that have become commonplace with companies like OpenAI, Google, Amazon, and Meta. The company also faced setbacks in its product launches, such as the delay of a planned update to its AI-powered Siri assistant earlier this year.

Sculley ran Apple from 1983 to 1993. He leveraged his marketing experience, gained over more than a decade at PepsiCo, where he launched the "Pepsi Challenge" campaign, to help promote the Mac brand. Apple co-founder Steve Jobs had a strained relationship with Sculley and the board throughout his tenure. This tension led Jobs to resign from Apple in 1985 before returning in 1997 to become CEO.

Speaking on Thursday, Sculley acknowledged speculation that Apple's current CEO, Tim Cook, may soon be considering retiring. Sculley said Cook's successor will need Apple's help in transitioning from the era of apps to the era of agents. "In the era of agents, we don't need so many apps; everything can be done with intelligent agents," Sculley said. (The term "agent AI" refers to technology capable of performing agent-like behaviors and autonomously completing complex tasks on your behalf.)

Sculley, 86, who recently retired from his role as co-founder and vice president of technology marketing firm Zeta Global to become vice president emeritus, said agent AI will help knowledge workers automate the tedious tasks of their workflow. He added that this will shift more technology companies to subscription-based business models.

"When apps were at the heart of everything, it was about selling tools and products. Subscriptions mean people pay for something for as long as they need it," Sculley added. Subscriptions offer a much better business model, he added.

Meanwhile, a familiar face from Apple recently joined OpenAI: former design chief Jony Ive. OpenAI acquired Ive's hardware startup earlier this year for more than $6 billion. Ive said this week at the OpenAI DevDay conference that he hopes the devices his team is working on will address some of the problems that smartphones and tablets have caused since their launch. "He designed and built the iMac, the iPod, the iPhone, and the iPad," Scully said of Ive.