Mornhouse × Google App Summit 2026 — AI edge for app growth

Two days in Dublin, a room full of app marketers, and one word on almost every slide. You can probably guess which one.

The Mornhouse team spent September 29–30 at Google App Summit 2026. This year's summit was built around "the AI-powered edge for app growth." Under the buzzword, though, there were a few real shifts worth paying attention to. Here's what we brought home.

1. AI is no longer a feature you add. It's the layer everything else runs on, from how apps get built to how campaigns get bought to how listings rank on Google Play. 2. Spend is out, efficiency is in. The conversation moved from "how far can we scale" to "how much value can we get per user." Fewer wasted impressions, more high-value installs. 3. Store optimization just got a brain. AI-driven ASO is moving from nice-to-have to baseline. If your store listing still gets a refresh once a quarter, that's a gap. 4. Data still picks the winners. The same idea kept coming back: optimize for lifetime value and first-party signals, not install counts.

Our take: in 2026 the gap won't be between teams that use AI and teams that don't. Everyone will. It'll be between teams that rebuild around it and teams that bolt it on.