According to Alex Katouzian, Director of Mobile, computing and augmented reality (XR) at Qualcomm, smartphones will continue to play an important role in daily life, but their central role will gradually change.
Instead of everything revolving around phones, the user experience will be shaped around humans and virtual assistants, thanks to the development of AI and smart wearables.
Katouzian explained: nowadays, the world takes phones as the center, but when AI becomes an interactive interface, users and their systems will be the center. The device will revolve around humans, not the other way around.
Mr. Katouzian emphasized that every device needs the ability to carry a virtual assistant, from smartwatches, enhanced reality glasses to mobile computing devices.
With enough computing power and memory, these devices can handle many tasks that the phone previously took on, such as recording and saving videos, or interacting with AI directly.
However, smartphones will not be replaced soon. Even popular smart glasses like Meta's Ray- Ban still need to be paired with a phone to work.
Qualcomm is currently developing Snapdragon AR1 Gen 1 chips for AR devices, including Ray- Ban Display, which supports features such as reading messages, previewing and answering calls, opening up the potential of wearable AI devices.
Katouzian compares this process to the journey of developing a smartphone: You can visualize an AI-wearing device as a personal AI on your body, making your phone better and supporting a multi-device experience.
Industry experts, including Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, also agree that phones will not disappear, but users will gradually do more work with wearable devices, while phones become less dependent.
Qualcomm sees a future where AI and wearables will reshape the way we interact with technology, creating an ecosystem revolving around humans, rather than a single device.
