Qualcomm CEO says AI agents will replace apps as chip giant develops 40 new AI-powered devices

Qualcomm CEO says AI agents will replace apps -- as chip giant works on 40 new AI-powered devices

Amon said AI agents will become the "new app" as consumers' relationship with their devices change. Qualcomm is working on over 40 designs of new AI devices, 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 laid out his views on the changing role of smartphones and apps, why smart glasses could be the next major consumer device, new types of electronics that will hit the market, and how chip architectures will need to change for even smaller gadgets. Amon's comments, which also alluded to new entrants in the consumer market, could have implications for the way major smartphone players like 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." "Right now, we have over 40 designs of those devices, and I'm telling you, the types of form factors are very, very broad." Amon said these wearable tech devices include jewelry, earbuds with cameras, pins, and watches. "The principle is something that you wear, something [that] is with you all the time, something that can see the world around you, so you have context and have the ability for you to access an agent and talk to the agent," Amon said. Agents are seen as the next step for digital assistants like Apple's Siri or Google Gemini. The tech industry is betting these agents will be able to carry out longer and more complex tasks across various apps and services on devices, such as booking holidays. Amon shared an example of an agent that instantly retrieves details of banking transactions, eliminating the need for a user to navigate through the app and manually locate the information. This could mean that the way we interact with apps in a future where agents are carrying out tasks could change. Apps are "not dead," Amon said, "but apps are going to change." "Those agents are going to be the new app," he added. The proliferation of agents and the changing nature of the way 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 around the agent. The new classes of devices ... are going to be around the agent as well. And the agent will be the one that will understand human intentions and will do things for you, so there is a shift in what the center of gravity is," Amon said, adding that phones won't disappear altogether. The Qualcomm CEO said he is bullish on smart glasses, a category of product that could rival smartphones in terms of scale. Smart glasses shipments are now in the "order of multiple tens of millions" per year, he told CNBC. In "a couple of years," Amon said this could reach the "order of hundreds of millions of glasses and could become as big as smartphones." There were 1.26 billion smartphones shipped in 2025, according to Counterpoint research, around 3% higher than the year before. Companies from Meta to Samsung are developing smart glasses with cameras in them. The shifts in devices could open the door for new types of companies to enter the consumer hardware market, Amon said. Last year OpenAI bought io, the hardware startup founded by iconic Apple designer Jony Ive, as it looks to enter the consumer devices market. "All the devices that we wear become endpoints for agents, and those AI companies understand 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 gather data on a scale that is "exponentially larger" than the data used to train AI models. "So those companies want to have access to the data, because it's important to train future models," and to create "bespoke" AI experiences for users, Amon said. With devices changing to potentially even smaller form factors, the chips that power them will need to change, as they will need to become more powerful and even more energy efficient. "Our entire roadmap is in a process of upgrade right now. An entire roadmap, because I believe none of the devices we have today are prepared for the future," Amon said. Choose CNBC as your preferred source on Google and never miss a moment from the most trusted name in business news.

Qualcomm's CEO Reveals 40+ AI Devices For A Post-App Future -- Stock Gains 4% As $10 Billion Tenstorrent D

Qualcomm Inc. (NASDAQ:QCOM) CEO Cristiano Amon said the company is developing more than 40 new AI-powered devices, betting that consumers will increasingly adopt smaller, personalized AI hardware. In an interview on CNBC's "The Tech Download" podcast on Monday, Amon discussed the changing role of smartphones and apps, and the potential of smart glasses as the next big consumer device. Amon said future AI devices could include smart jewelry, camera-equipped earbuds, pins, and watches that act as personal AI agents, understanding user intent and performing tasks without relying on traditional apps. "Right now, we have over 40 designs of those devices, and I'm telling you, the types of form factors are very, very broad," Amon said. The CEO further said AI agents could transform how people use apps by handling tasks directly without requiring users to navigate an app. While apps will continue to exist, Amon believes they will evolve, with AI agents increasingly becoming the primary interface for completing tasks. Apps are "not dead," Amon said, "but apps are going to change." AI Push Drives Qualcomm Strategy Emphasizing the need for more powerful and energy-efficient chips for these smaller form factor devices, Amon revealed that Qualcomm's entire roadmap is currently undergoing an upgrade to prepare for this future. Qualcomm and Tenstorrent did not immediately respond to Benzinga's requests for comment. In May, Qualcomm reportedly reached a deal to supply TikTok parent ByteDance with application-specific integrated circuits (ASICs) for AI data centers. QCOM Price Action: The stock gained 4.07% in Tuesday's pre-market trading session. On a year-to-date basis, it surged 27.65%, as per data from Benzinga Pro. Disclaimer: This content was partially produced with the help of AI tools and was reviewed and published by Benzinga editors. Image via Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs To add Benzinga News as your preferred source on Google, click here.