At TechCrunch Disrupt, Amazon devices chief Panos Panay argued that the future of personal AI is ambient computing rather than an app-centric model. He contrasted today’s smartphone interaction as “point, shoot, return,” where users must remember what they’re asking their tools to do, with ambient devices that work quietly in the background, using sensors and AI to anticipate what needs to be done. Panay said this lets users stay more present, get more done, and spend more time with people without worrying about missing something.

Amazon‘s first major push in this direction is the new Bee line of wearables, which includes a wristband that can also be worn as a pendant and a credit-card-sized device that magnetically attaches to the back of a smartphone. These gadgets passively record audio and take notes about the user’s day, surfacing to-dos, reminders, and insights. To balance usefulness with privacy, Bee devices do not store raw audio; they process it in real time and then delete it. Transcripts are encrypted using keys that the user’s device creates and controls, so no one else, including Amazon employees, can access them unless the user intentionally shares them. Panay said privacy was a key consideration and that the devices were designed with privacy in mind from the start.

Panay, who spent 19 years at Microsoft overseeing Surface development, said he believes a transformation is coming in which a future generation will expect devices to understand what they need rather than asking for an app. He does not think the smartphone will disappear, nor does he believe one form factor will replace another. Instead, he envisions a new crop of sensor-driven devices emerging, connected by an intelligence layer that brings understanding to the world around the user. That layer, he emphasized, has to be useful.