Malls in the Matrix

Malls are changing.

I would say dying, but I don't think they are.

They are changing.

Evolving.

Iterating.

I remember marveling at the amount of choices one had to shop in a mall.

I didn't realize how curated all these places actually were, how narrow the options, but it was cool to see way more than one store.

Now, malls are being repurposed.

Multi-use. 

I think it would be interesting if a company bought out an old mall and turned it into a business where their employees lived there as well. Like a campus.

Or a prison.

Of course, this isn't necessarily a happy idea, but some might be happy for it.

What I'm getting at here is what about the internet malls?

Right now, we are past the ooh and ahh stage of having a digital mall where we can shop at almost any store in the world.

There are too many choices, even though most of ours are still highly curated.

Will the internet shopping mall pass?

Or will it change?

Adapt.

Iterate.

I'm still waiting for ai to start suggesting a product ("link provided") whenever I ask it something even tangentially related.

That's part of this, I think. Ai shopping. Ai ads. Ai malls.

Ads on search browsers shifting to ads on ai prompts.

I know, I know.

But it's coming.

"This prompt answer brought to you by..."

Yuck.

It did turn Google into a monster. I wonder if it will do so for an ai company.