As artificial intelligence (AI) grows in popularity, the technology world is debating whether traditional applications will be replaced by AI agents.
However, ahead of Apple’s WWDC 2026 Global Developer Conference (held in the US from June 8 to 12, 2026), many iOS developers believe that AI is not a threat, but a new opportunity for the application ecosystem.
According to Indian Express at the Apple Development Center in Bengaluru, India, developers are focusing on integrating AI into applications rather than completely replacing traditional software interfaces.
Nikhil Nigade, developer of the personal finance management application Pockity, believes that AI will make it easier for users to discover applications, increasing revenue opportunities for developers.
Pockity is built with the Apple-developed Swift UI, which allows users to record financial transactions in just seconds with a minimal and easy-to-use interface.
According to Nikhil Nigade, the purpose of the application is not to retain users for as long as possible, but to help them complete their tasks quickly and return to normal life.
Nikhil Nigade also said that future AI agents will greatly accelerate what users can do on their personal devices.
Another example is Peak, a health tracking application developed by Mumbai developer Harshil Shah. The application leverages Apple’s HealthKit to aggregate health data and allows users to create dashboards according to their needs.
Harshil Shah said the idea for the Peak app emerged during the coronavirus lockdown and he wanted more flexibility in monitoring health than the Apple Watch’s default targets.
The application uses Widget Kit, an Apple tool that helps programmers create widgets that quickly display information on the main screen of an iPhone, iPad, or Mac, so that users can follow the training process directly on the screen without opening the application.
While Harshil Shah appreciated AI’s programming support capabilities, he emphasized that large-scale language models can still produce inaccurate results, especially for sensitive health data. Therefore, the element of validating and understanding the actual needs of users remains very important.
Contrary to predictions that AI will kill applications, a report from Appfigures, a company that specializes in tracking and analyzing mobile application market data from places like the App Store and Google Play, shows that the number of new applications in the App Store increased by 80% in the first quarter of 2026 compared to the same period last year.
Many developers now view AI as the “silent engine” behind their applications. Zoho Notebook is a multi-platform note-taking platform that has been downloaded over 8 million times and integrates Apple Intelligence to support writing, notes, and smart search.
Letter Flow games, on the other hand, utilize AI models that run directly on your device, reducing the cost of cloud computing.
Accessibility has also become a major priority in AI application development. Guitar Wiz, a toolkit for guitarists, is designed with an easy-to-use interface for colorblind people and audio support for visually impaired people.
This application uses Apple’s Vision Framework to scan your handwritten music and create audio previews.
These examples show that while AI is changing the way applications work, it cannot completely replace the role of software built based on real-world needs and human experience.
