Meet 'Dobby': The AI agent that could kill the app economy

A human dressed up as Dobby the Elf from Harry Potter, during a trans march in Taipei, Taiwan. Koukos Yang/Getty Images 2026-04-01T11:00:02.436Z Share Copy link Email Facebook WhatsApp X LinkedIn Bluesky Threads lighning bolt icon An icon in the shape of a lightning bolt.

Impact Link Save Saved Read in app This story is available exclusively to Business Insider subscribers. Become an Insider and start reading now. Have an account? Log in. A version of this story originally appeared in the BI Tech Memo newsletter. Sign up for the weekly BI Tech Memo newsletter here. AI-generated summary Summaries are generated by an AI model trained on Business Insider's articles. AI may make mistakes or provide inaccurate/incomplete information. We're unable to load that answer right now. Please try again. What is "vibe coding"? What challenges do app ecosystems face? How can AI improve user experience? How does Dobby compare to other AI agents? How is AI changing home automation? Andrej Karpathy, the father of vibe coding, is starting to live in a world without apps. Loading audio narration... On a recent episode of "No Priors," Karpathy described an experiment with an OpenClaw AI agent that effectively replaced the fragmented software stack in his home.Instead of juggling multiple apps — from Sonos to lighting to security — he built an agent that discovers, reverse engineers, and controls connected systems through natural language. He calls it "Dobby," after the household elf in Harry Potter. With minimal prompting, Dobby scanned Karpathy's local network, identified devices, located undocumented APIs, and began handling commands, such as playing music and controlling lights."For me, even just the home automation setup, I used to use six different apps, and I don't have to use these apps anymore," he said. "Dobby controls everything in natural language." This stuff still takes technical skill. However, if you've ever tried to tweak something with your Sonos speaker system you'll know that apps can often be ridiculously difficult to use. I've almost thrown my Sonos speakers through the window a few times. If I never have to open the Sonos app again, I will be a happy man!The serious takeaway is that generative AI and agents pose a threat to the app ecosystem and companies that rely on this. The interface is evolving away from tapping through an app on an iPhone screen. Instead, we will use our voice a lot more, through AI chatbots and agents.Sign up for BI's Tech Memo newsletter here. Reach out to me via email at abarr@businessinsider.com.