Qualcomm is working on 40 new AI device designs

Qualcomm is working on more than 40 new AI machine designs, CEO Cristiano Amon told CNBC, as the chip designer prepares for a wave of “agents” across consumer electronics.

In a wide-ranging interview on CNBC’s “The Tech Download” podcast, Amon shared his thoughts on the changing role of smartphones and apps, why smart glasses could be the next big consumer device, new types of electronics that will enter the market, and how chip architecture will need to change for smaller and even bigger gadgets.

Amon’s comments, which also refer to new entrants in the consumer market, could have an impact on how the top smartphone players like it. an apple and Samsung will need to compete as AI proliferates devices.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of experimentation with different form factors,” Amon said on “The Tech Download.”

“Currently, we have more than 40 designs for those devices, and I tell you, the types of form factors are very wide.”

Amon said these wearable technology devices include jewelry, earbuds with cameras, pins, and watches.

“A routine is something you wear, something [that] it’s with you all the time, something that can see the world around you, so you have context and you have the ability to reach the agent and talk to the agent,” Amon said.

Agents are seen as the next step of digital assistants like Apple’s Siri or Google Gemini. The technology industry is betting that these agents will be able to perform long and complex tasks across various applications and services on devices, such as booking vacations.

Amon shared an example of an agent that quickly retrieves bank transaction information, eliminating the need for the user to navigate through the app and retrieve the information manually. This could mean that the way we interact with applications in the future where agents perform tasks may change.

Apps are “not dead,” Amon said, “but apps will change.”

“Those agents will be the new operating system,” he added.

The proliferation of agents and the changing nature of how we use apps in the future could also change the relationship people have with their smartphones and create opportunities for new types of devices to become popular.

AI agents are set to replace smartphones as the center of digital life.

“The phone is close to the agent. New categories of devices … will be close to the agent as well. And the agent will be the one who will understand the intentions of the person and will do things for you, so there is a change in the center of gravity,” said Amon, adding that phones will not disappear completely.

Qualcomm’s CEO said it is focusing on smart glasses, a product category that can compete with smartphones in terms of quality. Shipments of smart glasses are now “in the order of tens of millions” a year, he told CNBC. “In a few years,” Amon said this could reach “the order of billions of glasses and be as big as smartphones.”

There were 1.26 billion smartphones shipped by 2025, according to Counterpoint research, about 3% more than a year ago.

Companies from Meta at Samsung they create smart glasses with cameras in them.

The switch in devices could open the door for new types of companies to enter the consumer hardware market, Amon said.

Last year OpenAI bought io, a hardware startup founded by iconic Apple designer Jony Ive, as it looks to enter the consumer device market.

“All the devices we wear become endpoints for agents, and those AI companies understand that they have to win those endpoints from agents,” Amon said, explaining why non-traditional hardware companies are getting into gadgets.

Another motivation behind new entrants into the hardware space is data. Amon said these devices will collect data on a “much larger scale” than the data used to train AI models.

“So those companies want access to the data, because it’s important to train future models,” and to create “bespoke” AI experiences for users, Amon said.

With devices shifting to potentially smaller form factors, the chips that power them will need to change, as they will need to be more powerful and use more energy.

“All of our roads are in the process of development right now. Every guide, because I believe that none of the devices we have today are prepared for the future,” said Amon.