Qualcomm is working on over 40 designs of new AI-powered devices, CEO Cristiano Amon told CNBC on Tuesday, as the chip designer prepares for a wave of AI agents across consumer electronics. The move signals a future where agents - not apps - become the primary way people interact with devices, a shift that will reshape product strategies for hardware and software teams alike.
The shift from apps to AI agents
AI agents, the industry's next step beyond digital assistants like Siri, are being built to handle longer, cross-app tasks such as booking travel or retrieving specific data from banking apps. Amon offered an example of an agent that instantly pulls up transaction details, removing the need to open an app and search manually. "Those agents are going to be the new app," he said.
Apps are "not dead," he added, but the relationship will change. As agents handle more actions on a user's behalf, the app icon grid may give way to conversational commands. This reorientation of user interaction fits squarely within the field of AI Agents & Automation, where software design is moving from screen-first to intent-first.
New form factors and the smart glasses bet
Amon believes wearables will anchor the agent era. He said the 40-plus device designs include jewelry, camera-equipped earbuds, 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," he said.
Qualcomm's work across these unusual form factors reflects the kind of AI-driven product experimentation that AI for Product Development teams must now consider. Amon is particularly bullish on smart glasses. Shipments are already in the tens of millions per year, and he expects that to reach "hundreds of millions" within a couple of years - a scale that could rival smartphones. Smartphone shipments in 2025 totaled 1.26 billion, according to Counterpoint research.
The phone won't disappear, but the center of gravity is moving. "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.
Why AI companies are building hardware
The shift is opening the door for non-traditional hardware players. Last year OpenAI acquired io, the startup founded by Jony Ive, signaling its intent to enter the consumer device market. Amon explained the logic: "All the devices that we wear become endpoints for agents, and those AI companies understand they have to win those endpoints from agents."
Data is a second motivator. Amon said these new categories of devices will gather information "exponentially larger" than the data sets used to train today's models. Controlling that data pipeline, he said, is key for creating bespoke AI experiences and training future models.
Chip roadmaps under revision
Smaller, context-aware devices demand chips that are more powerful and far 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.
Why this matters for product development and IT
Product teams must start designing for agent-first interactions rather than app-centric menus. The assumption that a smartphone screen is the default interface is weakening. IT and development leaders should evaluate how agent platforms will connect with back-end services, and plan for a device landscape where glasses, earbuds, and wearables all call the same APIs. The hardware side must also grapple with tighter power and thermal constraints as chips shrink for jewelry-scale form factors. The winners will be those who treat agents as the product layer, not just a feature tacked onto existing apps.
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