Analysis Shows Gen Z and Alpha Prefer 'Agentic' Apps
Social apps that empower user agency through creation, remixing, and collaboration are resonating most with Gen Z and Gen Alpha. In-depth interviews reveal these younger demographics have a high demand for 'agentic' features that allow them to take action and participate visibly. Authenticity and rapid feedback loops are also key drivers of engagement.
- The global AI agents market was valued at $5.4 billion in 2024 and is projected to grow to $50.31 billion by 2030. Investor interest is shifting from passive predictive models to proactive agentic AI that can execute tasks, with funding for agentic AI startups nearly tripling to $3.8 billion in 2024. - Agentic AI systems are characterized by their autonomy and ability to make decisions without direct human oversight to achieve goals. This is enabled by advances in Large Language Models (LLMs) for improved reasoning, enhanced memory for long-term context, and integration with external tools and APIs. - For Gen Alpha, gaming is a primary way to express creativity through virtual world-building, while Gen Z spends a significant amount of their screen time on short-form video apps like TikTok and Instagram Reels. YouTube is a dominant platform for both demographics for entertainment and brand discovery. - Developers are using open-source frameworks like CrewAI and LangChain to build applications with teams of autonomous AI agents that can collaborate on complex tasks. No-code platforms like Gumloop are also emerging to automate workflows such as lead generation and social media posting. - Enterprise software companies are heavily investing in agentic AI, with major players like Salesforce, ServiceNow, and Snowflake releasing agentic platforms to orchestrate and govern AI agents across business functions. US software companies spent more on acquiring AI companies in 2025 than in the previous three years combined. - Gen Z's spending power is a major driver for these trends, commanding an estimated $360 billion in the U.S. alone. This demographic accounts for 40% of global consumers and shows a high preference for personalized experiences and authenticity. - Practical applications of agentic AI are already being deployed by major companies. For example, eBay uses an internal agentic platform to power LLM-driven recommendation experiences, and Uber uses agentic AI to improve the answer quality of its on-call copilot. - While Gen Z comprises about 32% of the world's population, Gen Alpha is projected to become the largest generation, reaching 2.2 billion worldwide by the end of 2024. A significant portion of Alphas (64% of 8-12 year olds) use YouTube and TikTok daily.
