Why AI Agents Break the App Store Model

An Altimeter Capital partner argues that the App Store's bundled value - discovery, distribution, trust, payment - won't survive intact once AI agents replace human browsing with API calls. The framework splits the stack into three layers: connection (where MCP is already commoditized after OpenAI and Google adopted Anthropic's protocol), discovery (where the real monetization fight will happen), and payment (where Apple historically extracted its 30% cut). The interesting bit is that agents don't have the hardware lock-in that made Apple's payment toll viable. Discovery algorithms that decide which services an agent picks on a user's behalf could end up more powerful than any app ranking ever was. Platform economics are being rewritten around machine-to-machine routing, not human taps.