Qualcomm is engaged on over 40 designs of latest AI units, CEO Cristiano Amon instructed CNBC, because the chip designer prepares for a wave of “brokers” throughout shopper 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 sensible glasses could possibly be the following main shopper system, new sorts of electronics that may 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 shopper market, might have implications for the best way main smartphone gamers like Apple and Samsung might want to compete as AI proliferates units.
“I believe there’s going to be a variety of experimentation with completely different kind components,” Amon mentioned on “The Tech Obtain.”
“Proper now, we’ve 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 embrace 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’ve got context and have the flexibility so that you can entry an agent and speak 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 varied apps and providers on units, equivalent to reserving holidays.
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon delivers a keynote speech at Computex in Taipei, Taiwan, Might 19, 2025.
Ann Wang | Reuters
Amon shared an instance of an agent that immediately retrieves particulars of banking transactions, eliminating the necessity for a person to navigate by the app and manually find the knowledge. This might imply that the best way we work together with apps in a future the place brokers are finishing up duties might change.
Apps are “not lifeless,” Amon mentioned, “however apps are going to alter.”
“These brokers are going to be the brand new app,” he added.
Qualcomm bullish on sensible glasses
The proliferation of brokers and the altering nature of the best way we use apps sooner or later might additionally change the connection folks have with their smartphones and create alternatives for brand new sorts of units to develop into widespread.
AI brokers are set to interchange smartphones as the middle of digital life.
“The cellphone is across the agent. The brand new courses of units … are going to be across the agent as effectively. And the agent would be the one that may 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 sensible glasses, a class of product that would rival smartphones when it comes to scale. Sensible glasses shipments at the moment are within the “order of a number of tens of tens of millions” per yr, he instructed CNBC. In “a few years,” Amon mentioned this might attain the “order of a whole bunch of tens of millions of glasses and might develop into as massive as smartphones.”
There have been 1.26 billion smartphones shipped in 2025, in keeping with Counterpoint analysis, round 3% greater than the yr earlier than.
Firms from Meta to Samsung are creating sensible glasses with cameras in them.
AI corporations entering into {hardware}
The shifts in units might open the door for brand new sorts of corporations to enter the patron {hardware} market, Amon mentioned.
Final yr OpenAI purchased io, the {hardware} startup based by iconic Apple designer Jony Ive, because it appears to enter the patron units market.
“All of the units that we put on develop into endpoints for brokers, and people AI corporations perceive they should win these endpoints from brokers,” Amon mentioned, explaining why non-traditional {hardware} corporations are entering into devices.
One other motivation behind new entrants into the {hardware} area is information. Amon mentioned these units will collect information on a scale that’s “exponentially bigger” than the information used to coach AI fashions.
“So these corporations wish to have entry to the information, as a result of it is essential 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 vitality environment friendly.
“Our complete roadmap is in a technique of improve proper now. A whole roadmap, as a result of I imagine not one of the units we’ve at the moment are ready for the long run,” Amon mentioned.
