January 1, 2026
The city is full of untapped experiences.
If you and I were in Toronto today, there are probably a dozen things we could do. Yet we default to the same few choices. Why aren’t there thousands? AR is where that gap will be solved.
The first wave of AR was spectacle: overlays, filters, and visual novelty. It drove curiosity, lacked utility and emotional depth, resulting in low retention.
The second wave will be context-aware, AI-driven, and location-based. Experiences will be anchored to real places, aware of who you are, where you are, and why you’re there. AI NPCs are inevitable: conversations with them at physical locations will become the new norm.
It’s intuitive.
It’s useful.
And it fits existing human behaviour.
For AR to reach mass adoption, it must deliver three things:
The winning AR products will disappear into existing behaviour. Over time, the world itself will be populated with AI entities (the natives of AR) each tied to place, history, and purpose.