'Everybody will have their own personalised operating system': Nothing CEO Carl Pei

While Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has become the buzzword in the consumer space, most current devices still require manual prompts to function, says Nothing CEO Carl Pei. At the World Government Summit 2026, Pei outlines the future of smartphone operating systems, saying that “In the future, everybody will have their own personalised operating system, because we’re all different.”

Nothing’s strategy for the future is not to build an operating system for billions of users at once, but to create a roadmap to a one-to-one OS. Pei said, “We have different goals in life and different personalities,” requiring a more personalised approach to how we use our smartphones.

The executive highlights its AI-powered tool “Essential Apps,” which currently requires users to manually prompt in natural language to perform the desired task. 

The next phase should be system learning user patterns to automatically suggest and place tools on the phone. Then eventually, the OS gains autonomy to predict user needs and execute journeys without the user having to ask. 

Once we reach that stage, “we don't have to ask anymore, because once we're certain about what people want on their phones, it just automatically place it,” said Pei. 

Alongside OS personalisation, the CEO also talked about how AI is accelerating Nothing’s internal development, especially through "vibe coding. 

“I've been doing a lot of vibe coding since January, just last month. And I think the models got really improved in December last year,” said Pei. He further added, “Now it's actually being able to help me in the product development.”

By leveraging improved AI models, Pei has personally prototyped features that had been on the company's back burner for years.