Key insights:
Social media feels like a constant in our lives. We wake up, we scroll, we post, we repeat. But the reality is that social media is an industry born from specific technologies, and like every technology-driven industry before it, it has a shelf life. The question isn't whether it will change. It's whether we're already watching it crack.
In a recent conversation between Gary Vaynerchuk and futurist Sinead Bovell, both explored a compelling thesis: AI is beginning to break the fundamental value proposition of social media platforms as we know them. And what comes next could be unrecognizable from what we have today.
Think about why you post anything online. You're signaling something. Maybe you're showing you were at the beach. Maybe you're demonstrating expertise on LinkedIn. Maybe you're subtly letting people know you're single. Whatever the reason, you post because humans are on the other side consuming it.
That's the deal. You create, humans watch, and the feedback loop keeps you coming back. Likes, comments, shares, follows. It all reinforces the behavior.
But what happens when you can't verify whether the views on your content come from real people or AI bots? If your metrics are 99% synthetic and only 1% human, does the psychology of posting still hold? Gary Vee argues yes, as long as the results you want still happen from that 1% of real humans. If you're selling wine and people are still buying, you'll keep posting regardless of inflated bot metrics.
That's a fair point. But it does fundamentally change the relationship between creator and audience. The trust in the feedback loop starts to erode.
The second part of the thesis is about habit disruption. Right now, we pull out our phones dozens of times a day. We open apps, we swipe, we watch. It's a deeply ingrained behavior loop.
But as AI gets better, especially with voice-first interfaces, that loop starts to break. Instead of opening your phone to order an Uber, you just say it. Instead of scrolling Instagram for restaurant recommendations, you ask your AI assistant. The friction of opening an app and watching content disappears.
Gary agreed on this point strongly. He's been talking about voice technology since 2016 and 2017 when he first saw early AI capabilities through Alexa. His take: voice technology is at the worst it will ever be right now, and it's already changing how people interact with technology.
Both Gary and Sinead only prompt AI using voice. Entire startups are now voice-first offices where nobody types. This isn't a future prediction. It's happening today.
The third and perhaps most important part of the thesis is this: AI is a general purpose technology like the internet itself. And general purpose technologies don't just make us do the same things faster. They make us do entirely different things.
YouTube wasn't automated television. It created new creators, new formats, new business models. TikTok wasn't automated YouTube. The pattern repeats throughout history. When distribution changes, everything changes.
So whatever comes after social media won't be social media with AI bolted on. It will be something fundamentally new. Something that has threads connecting it to today's platforms but will feel as different as going from cable TV to TikTok.
If voice starts to crack the habit of pulling out your phone, the next question is: what replaces the phone as the primary screen? Both Gary and Sinead believe the answer is smart glasses and augmented reality. And the implications for content, creators, and brands are massive.
Gary made a bold but historically grounded claim: glasses will do to the phone what the phone did to television, and what television did to radio. Each new distribution medium doesn't just add to the previous one. It becomes the dominant way we consume and interact.
Meta's Project Orion is targeting roughly six years from now for consumer-ready AR glasses. That timeline might slip, but the direction is clear. When glasses arrive and work well, the 90-second vertical video format that dominates today will start to feel as outdated as manually cranked motion pictures.
Think about it. You can't scroll TikTok with your eyes in the same way you scroll with your thumb. The format has to change. Content will become three-dimensional, interactive, and immersive.
Gary painted a vivid picture: imagine having a podcast conversation and a third guest appears in the room through AR, sitting right there with you. That's not science fiction. That's the trajectory we're on.
Here's where Gary's experience with technology transitions becomes valuable. He made a prediction he feels strongly about: the first AR content will be underwhelming. It will probably be one-minute videos that just show up in your glasses, because creators won't yet understand the new medium.
This has happened before. The first commercials on television were literally radio ads. A photo appeared on screen while a man read copy as if he were on radio. It took years for creators to understand the unique power of the television medium.
The same thing happened with the iPhone. The original breakout app was a novelty where you pretended to drink a beer. That's a long way from Uber or Instagram. New platforms always start clumsy before someone figures out what they're truly capable of.
So the early days of AR content will feel silly. But give it ten years after mainstream adoption, and Gary believes people will struggle to take their glasses off because they'll be missing too much of the world without them.
The conversation turned to entertainment, and this is where things get exciting. Gary isn't interested in watching movies with digital twins of Leonardo DiCaprio. That's just automating the present, not creating the future.
What excites him is the kid in a basement right now using AI to create an entirely new form of entertainment that we can't even imagine yet. Something as radical as the leap from Broadway to movies.
He specifically said there's probably a seven-year-old girl in Toronto right now working on something that will make her the Scorsese of immersive AR entertainment. And when we see it, it will feel both shocking and totally obvious.
Consider the Sphere in Las Vegas as an early signal. Imagine watching a movie where you're inside it. Where the environment responds to you. Where the experience is fully immersive. That's where entertainment is heading, and AI plus AR is the combination that gets us there.
Beyond content and entertainment, AI is about to restructure how we buy things, how brands reach us, and how the entire commercial ecosystem works. Gary and Sinead explored what they call the agentic economy, and the implications are staggering.
Picture this scenario. You walk into your kitchen and say, "Hey Alexa, I have six friends coming over tonight. I want pizza. One of them is lactose intolerant. Handle it." That's it. You're done. You don't open an app. You don't browse options. You don't compare prices. Your AI agent makes every decision.
Now here's where it gets interesting. You're going to set preferences for things you care about and let the AI handle everything else. Gary shared his own example:
Sinead's list was different. She cares deeply about perfume and supplements but is relaxed about toothpaste. Everyone will have their own version of this. The agentic economy will force us all to figure out what we actually care about versus what we've been buying on autopilot.
This is the billion-dollar question. If AI agents are making purchasing decisions, how does a brand get chosen? Gary outlined several key dynamics:
There's also a deeper question: will the companies controlling AI attention want to become the businesses themselves? Will OpenAI compete with Geico instead of just serving ads for Geico? Will Google's Gemini become H&R Block instead of sending people to H&R Block? These are open questions that will define the next decade of commerce.
Gary's advice for creators was direct and practical. Don't get paralyzed by what's coming. Fly two planes at once.
Plane one: Keep doing what's working right now. Squeeze every drop of value from current platforms. The more people who know your name today, the better positioned you'll be regardless of what technology shifts happen. Gary specifically said the number one thing a creator can do right now is maximize discoverability on TikTok and expand to every platform possible.
Plane two: Start building knowledge about what's coming. You need to know what vibe coding is. You need to understand live shopping. You need to experiment with AI agents and voice interfaces. You don't need to become a technical expert overnight, but you need to start flirting with these technologies.
The critical lesson from history: the MySpace stars who didn't transition to Facebook and Twitter got left behind. Dane Cook had massive MySpace fame but didn't aggressively move to the next platforms. When the shift happens, you need to be ready to move.
Most importantly, Gary emphasized that your value proposition must be independent of any platform. If your entire identity is tied to being a TikTok creator or a YouTube personality, you're vulnerable. Your mission, your expertise, your reason for existing as a creator should translate across any medium.
The conversation also touched on some of the cultural dynamics shaping how we relate to technology, including the much-discussed topic of authenticity and the emerging data on Gen Alpha's relationship with screens.
Sinead shared data showing that Gen Alpha is spending more time offline than previous generations at the same age. They're not getting phones at the same rates. They're not signing up for social platforms the same way. They're living more in DMs than in public feeds.
Gary agreed with the observation but added nuance. He sees it as a barbell effect. Some people will go more offline while others will go deeper into technology. The technology is too compelling for humanity to walk away from it entirely. From the wheel to AI, we move forward. That's the most consistent pattern in human history.
He also pointed out a gap between what people say and what they do. In polls, many people claim they want to unplug. Far fewer actually do it. We're aspirational in surveys and hypocritical in practice.
The word "authenticity" gets thrown around constantly, especially in conversations about AI. Instagram's Adam Mosseri has encouraged creators to lean into authenticity as AI content floods platforms. But both Gary and Sinead pushed back on how we define the term.
Gary offered a powerful historical parallel. When the canvas was invented, artists said making art on canvas wasn't real art. You had to make it on a building. Today, we consider canvas art completely legitimate. The same pattern played out with radio, television, and digital art.
His point: authenticity isn't about the medium. It's about the intent and the actions behind the content. Martin Luther King's speech was broadcast on television, a machine. Does that make it less authentic than hearing it in person on the National Mall?
Sinead added that authenticity shouldn't be defined in comparison to machines or other people. It should be about what genuinely interests you and what you're genuinely knowledgeable about. Gary's early Wine Library TV videos had no lighting and no audio equipment. They worked because he was genuinely passionate and knowledgeable about wine.
The overarching message from this conversation is clear. We're in the early stages of a fundamental shift. Social media as we know it won't disappear overnight, but the cracks are forming. Voice interfaces, smart glasses, AI agents, and new forms of immersive content are all converging.
If you're a professional thinking about your career in this landscape, the time to start learning is now. Understanding automation, AI, and how these systems work gives you a significant advantage. Rather than being displaced by these technologies, you can be the one building and implementing them.
If you're interested in positioning yourself on the building side of automation and AI, the Complete RPA Bootcamp takes you from beginner to professional in Robotic Process Automation, Agentic Automation, and Enterprise Orchestration. It's designed for people who want to switch into a future-proof career where you're building the automation instead of being replaced by it.
For the full conversation between Gary Vee and Sinead Bovell, including their debate on live shopping, the future of entertainment, and specific advice for creators, watch the video embedded below from the Sinead Bovell YouTube channel. It's packed with practical insights you won't want to miss.
