A lot of disruptive technology these days are apps. They have servers, customer support staff, and developers helping to make that app work, but it's ultimately the technology living in your pocket that makes these companies possible.
Uber was able to disrupt the competitive taxi industry, Airbnb disrupted hospitality, Seamless disrupted food delivery, and all of them were made possible by the advances in smartphone technology.
"This phenomenon, of being able to disrupt from another world, is going to grow. And its going to change the demand and supply dynamics of many industries," El-Erian said.
"Machine learning and artificial intelligence allows you to power up in a way that you thought unimaginable."