So far, most investment in artificial intelligence has flowed into enterprise applications — technologies people use at work. Yet many of the largest, long-running successes in the tech industry originally began as consumer products.
Marissa Mayer, who recently launched a consumer AI app called Dazzle and appeared on Semafor’s Future Proof, says she expects consumer AI to be roughly twice as large as enterprise AI by 2030.
What is Dazzle and how is it different?
Dazzle is an AI personal assistant that, according to Marissa Mayer, does not operate like many current productivity AIs that read a user’s email or calendar. Instead, Dazzle primarily draws information from the user’s photo reel to infer details about their life, habits, and preferences.
Despite its narrow data source, Dazzle’s capabilities are described as impressive. Whether the app becomes a long-lived platform or remains a preview, it serves as an indication of how a new wave of consumer-oriented AI might look.
Why this matters
If consumer AI experiences rapid growth, it could reshape investment patterns, spawn new business models and user behaviors, and change public perceptions of what AI means in everyday life. Dazzle shows that consumer applications need not rely primarily on personal communications data (such as email or calendars); alternative multimedia sources can enable useful services.
The author also notes that recent events, referenced in the source as Tuesday’s election results, suggest it’s difficult to imagine public sentiment about AI worsening further in the near term.
Reed Albergotti
