Kevin O’Leary, the renowned entrepreneur from Shark Tank, predicts that artificial intelligence (AI) will drastically change the landscape of retail transactions. He expresses that in the not-so-distant future, customers will be able to make purchases simply by speaking into their devices. The integration of blockchain technology will play a pivotal role in handling these transactions, ensuring a seamless payment experience.
In a recent video shared on X, O’Leary outlined how AI could enable users to place orders through their smartphones, suggesting that the technology will analyze nearby retailers and complete purchases autonomously using blockchain for payment processing.
“You simply talk to your phone and say, I want a tall, low-fat latte, please. I’m going to be there in 90 seconds. That’s it.”
The AI would recognize the user and their preferences, facilitating a smoother retail experience. However, O’Leary cautions that the current blockchain solutions, including Ethereum, are not yet efficient enough to handle high volumes of transactions promptly due to their linear processing methods.
“It’s a long highway on a way to a toll road for authentication of the transaction, and when there’s too many going on the highway at the same time, they get stuck at the toll, they get jammed up.”
Despite these challenges, O’Leary believes the next innovation in blockchain technology is on the horizon, with structures like Directed Acyclic Graphs offering promising solutions that can process multiple transactions simultaneously, unlike traditional blockchain methods.
As examples, he cited platforms like Hedera and Nano, which utilize this advanced architecture but have yet to achieve the user engagement levels of established chains like Ethereum.
O’Leary is eager to see the first successful project that can provide decentralized solutions for millions of retailer transactions daily.
Additionally, the development of Agentic AI is already assisting individuals in daily tasks, reflecting the potential of AI to improve everyday life, from ordering groceries to tracking sales across different retailers. According to Kyle Okamoto, the CTO of Aethir, his wife’s implementation of Agentic AI illustrates how AI can contribute to household management efficiently.
“She just simply talks to her agent regularly and says, ‘hey, I’m out of milk,’ and it keeps track of that and then it ultimately says, ‘hey, you run out of milk every week to eight days.'”
Now, O’Leary emphasizes the importance of integrating a blockchain solution to facilitate payment processes, paving the way for a future where AI and blockchain coexist harmoniously.
