Qualcomm CEO declares 2026 the year of AI agents, unveils Dragonfly platform at Computex

AI agents to become centre of digital life: Qualcomm CEO

Qualcomm envisions a future where autonomous AI agents will manage tasks independently across devices, shifting the digital experience away from smartphones. President and CEO Cristiano R Amon declared 2026 "the year of agents," highlighting AI's evolution from prompt-response to proactive action. These agents will become the new centre of digital life, operating across all connected devices, he said. Qualcomm has outlined its vision for an AI-driven future where autonomous AI agents will perform tasks independently across devices and eventually become the centre of users' digital lives, reducing the pivotal role currently played by smartphones. Addressing Computex 2026 in Taipei on Monday, Qualcomm President and CEO Cristiano R Amon said 2026 would be "the year of agents" as artificial intelligence evolves beyond responding to prompts and starts taking actions on behalf of users. Qualcomm, which has a significant presence in India and has one of its largest employee bases outside the US in the country, is betting big on Agentic AI. It also operates major research, software and hardware design centres in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Chennai. "2026 is the year of agents and it's now how AI is really evolving," Amon said in his keynote address at the global technology event organised by the Taiwan External Trade Development Council. Amon said AI is evolving from being a tool that assists users to becoming an intelligent system capable of understanding goals, breaking them into tasks, using digital tools and completing complex workflows with minimal human supervision. According to Qualcomm, the technology, known as Agentic AI, differs from conventional generative AI by acting as a digital worker rather than merely responding to queries. These AI agents can independently execute multi-step tasks and assist users in both personal and professional settings. Major technology companies have increasingly positioned AI agents as the next stage of artificial intelligence development, with the systems designed to perform tasks across applications and devices with limited human intervention. According to Amon, the emergence of AI agents will fundamentally change the way people interact with technology. Amon said, currently, the smartphone is the centre of everyone's digital life, and everything revolves around the phone ecosystem. "The agents will become the centre of the digital experience," he said. Amon said AI agents would not be tied to any single ecosystem. Instead, every connected device - from smartphones and smartwatches to laptops and vehicles - would become an endpoint through which users interact with them. He said the shift would require a new generation of devices designed specifically for AI-driven workloads. "Today's devices were not designed for those experiences. You will require a different kind of device when Agentic AI becomes the number one AI function in our daily lives, especially for personal computing," he said. Amon stressed that power efficiency would become critical as both users and AI agents simultaneously utilise computing resources. "If it is challenging to make your phone last all day with you operating it, what happens when both you and the agent are operating it? You need a very strong and power-efficient CPU for the orchestration of tasks," he said. Highlighting Qualcomm's future roadmap, Amon also offered a glimpse of a new product platform, Dragonfly, saying further details would be announced later this month. Qualcomm and Tata Electronics are also collaborating to manufacture Qualcomm Automotive Modules for digital cockpits, infotainment and connectivity solutions in India.

Qualcomm Says 2026 Is 'Year Of The Agent' -- And 'Dragonfly' Is Its Answer - Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT), Qual

The company made its presence known at this year's Computex event. Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon Labels 2026 'Year of the Agent' Fresh off being part of an envoy of technology leaders travelling to China with President Donald Trump, Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon gave a keynote speech at this year's Computex event. In his speech, Amon labeled 2026 as the "Year of the Agent." Amon said that the new currency of AI is tokens, with agents demanding trillions of tokens. This leads to an increased focus on power efficiency and cost, as well as performance. The Qualcomm CEO highlighted his company as an enabler for the next phase of AI growth across smartphones, PCs, cars and industrial systems, as intelligent agents operate across devices and grow their use cases. "We're building the products and the technology that will define this new era," Amon said. Amon said as AI shifts from models to agents, Qualcomm is positioned to help supply the demand with a deep portfolio of solutions for AI, connectivity and compute. "Agents become the center of your digital experience...it's not about an extension of the phone, and the digital ecosystem is no longer at the phone itself, in the OS and the applications. Those devices become endpoints for agents." Amon said agents are already here and changing the demand for new devices and computing. "This upgrade cycle can be one of the largest that the industry has seen." At Computex, Amon also teased Dragonfly, Qualcomm's new data center brand. The Qualcomm CEO said the company will bring its performance leadership into the growing market. More details will be announced at Qualcomm's Investor Day on June 24. Amon said Qualcomm is already working with hyperscalers and global partners on Dragonfly. Qualcomm Working with Microsoft "In every generation of technology transition, we've seen a shift," Amon said. "And I think this one seems to be a very big one." Amon said that agents are changing everyday experiences and getting AI closer to wearables and the next level of computing. "You need a very power-efficient CPU. The whole silicon is designed for you to have a cloud-native experience, and then you have a lot of sensors. A lot of sensors for context." Microsoft and Qualcomm have partnered on several initiatives, including on-device AI. "We want to make it possible for anybody who is thinking of an agentic system to not just be bound to current devices, but to imagine that there can be many, many devices that carry that intelligence in different contexts," Nadella said. The Microsoft CEO said the two companies want to build an open ecosystem. Amon said he's proud of the partnership between the two technology companies and stressed that this is "just the beginning." Qualcomm Stock Price Action Qualcomm stock was up 5.17% to $240.84 on Tuesday versus a 52-week trading range of $121.99 to $259.92. Qualcomm stock is up 39.6% year-to-date in 2026. Photo Courtesy: Qualcomm Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.