Qualcomm is engaged on over 40 designs of latest AI units, CEO Cristiano Amon informed CNBC, because the chip designer prepares for a wave of “brokers” throughout client electronics.
In a wide-ranging interview on CNBC’s “The Tech Obtain” podcast, Amon laid out his views on the altering function of smartphones and apps, why good glasses could possibly be the following main client machine, new sorts of electronics that can hit the market, and the way chip architectures might want to change for even smaller devices.
Amon’s feedback, which additionally alluded to new entrants within the client market, might have implications for the way in which main smartphone gamers like Apple and Samsung might want to compete as AI proliferates units.
“I believe there’s going to be a number of experimentation with completely different kind components,” Amon mentioned on “The Tech Obtain.”
“Proper now, we now have over 40 designs of these units, and I am telling you, the sorts of kind components are very, very broad.”
Amon mentioned these wearable tech units embody jewellery, earbuds with cameras, pins, and watches.
“The precept is one thing that you just put on, one thing [that] is with you on a regular basis, one thing that may see the world round you, so you could have context and have the power so that you can entry an agent and discuss to the agent,” Amon mentioned.
AI brokers
Brokers are seen as the following step for digital assistants like Apple’s Siri or Google Gemini. The tech business is betting these brokers will be capable of perform longer and extra complicated duties throughout numerous apps and providers on units, comparable to reserving holidays.
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon delivers a keynote speech at Computex in Taipei, Taiwan, Could 19, 2025.
Ann Wang | Reuters
Amon shared an instance of an agent that immediately retrieves particulars of banking transactions, eliminating the necessity for a consumer to navigate via the app and manually find the data. This might imply that the way in which we work together with apps in a future the place brokers are finishing up duties might change.
Apps are “not useless,” Amon mentioned, “however apps are going to vary.”
“These brokers are going to be the brand new app,” he added.
Qualcomm bullish on good glasses
The proliferation of brokers and the altering nature of the way in which we use apps sooner or later might additionally change the connection folks have with their smartphones and create alternatives for brand spanking new sorts of units to develop into in style.
AI brokers are set to exchange smartphones as the middle of digital life.
“The telephone is across the agent. The brand new courses of units … are going to be across the agent as properly. And the agent would be the one that can perceive human intentions and can do issues for you, so there’s a shift in what the middle of gravity is,” Amon mentioned, including that telephones will not disappear altogether.
Meta’s Orion AR glasses are displayed throughout a viewing in Menlo Park, California, U.S., Sept. 26, 2024.
Manuel Orbegozo | Reuters
The Qualcomm CEO mentioned he’s bullish on good glasses, a class of product that would rival smartphones when it comes to scale. Sensible glasses shipments are actually within the “order of a number of tens of hundreds of thousands” per 12 months, he informed CNBC. In “a few years,” Amon mentioned this might attain the “order of a whole bunch of hundreds of thousands of glasses and might develop into as huge as smartphones.”
There have been 1.26 billion smartphones shipped in 2025, in keeping with Counterpoint analysis, round 3% larger than the 12 months earlier than.
Corporations from Meta to Samsung are developing good glasses with cameras in them.
AI firms entering into {hardware}
The shifts in units might open the door for brand spanking new sorts of firms to enter the buyer {hardware} market, Amon mentioned.
Final 12 months OpenAI bought io, the {hardware} startup based by iconic Apple designer Jony Ive, because it appears to be like to enter the buyer units market.
“All of the units that we put on develop into endpoints for brokers, and people AI firms perceive they need to win these endpoints from brokers,” Amon mentioned, explaining why non-traditional {hardware} firms are entering into devices.
One other motivation behind new entrants into the {hardware} house is knowledge. Amon mentioned these units will collect knowledge on a scale that’s “exponentially bigger” than the info used to coach AI fashions.
“So these firms need to have entry to the info, as a result of it is vital to coach future fashions,” and to create “bespoke” AI experiences for customers, Amon mentioned.
With units altering to doubtlessly even smaller kind components, the chips that energy them might want to change, as they might want to develop into extra highly effective and much more power environment friendly.
“Our complete roadmap is in a means of improve proper now. A complete roadmap, as a result of I imagine not one of the units we now have at this time are ready for the longer term,” Amon mentioned.