I write in my next book about the first thing most people do in the morning. Reach for the phone. Before a thought of their own.

I don't think that habit has ten more years in it. Not because we'll get better. Because the phone will move.

What's the pattern?

The personal computer was the center of digital life for about twenty years. It was the thing you sat in front of. Then the phone arrived, and the PC didn't die. It became furniture: still there, still useful, no longer where life happened.

The phone has been the center for about fifteen years. And the same thing is starting. Earbuds that talk. Glasses that see. Agents that do the tapping for you, so the app you'd have opened never gets opened. The phone stays in the pocket, and the pocket is where it ends up living.

The pattern is that the screen we stare at keeps getting smaller and then disappears into the environment. Every era of computing moves closer to the body and further from the desk. The next step is no screen at all, most of the time.

That's the risk and the opportunity in one. A world without the glowing rectangle could be a world where attention comes back. Or it could be a world where the feed is in your ear all day and you never notice you're in it.

What should leaders do now?

So, three things.

If you build products: stop designing for the screen first. Design for the moment the person doesn't look at anything. What does your service do when it's a voice, or an agent, or nothing at all?

If you build a brand: prepare to be chosen by an agent, not a thumb. The app icon is about to matter a lot less than the data behind it.

And whoever you are: use the gap. As the phone moves out of the hand, you get a chance to decide what goes there instead. Decide on purpose.

The PC didn't die. Neither will the phone. But the age of staring at it is closing, and what fills that gaze is up for grabs.

What would you do with your hands if the phone weren't in them?

Related: Is your attention the most valuable thing your company owns?

Sam Rad, The Change Futurist. Keynote speaker on change, transformation, resilience, and AI adoption. Author of Radical Next. Book a keynote