AI agents to replace operating systems, apps: Qualcomm president

Cristiano Amon says AI agents will sit at the centre of mobile devices, reshape 6G networks and power smart manufacturing as India eyes a larger global tech role

AI will replace operating systems and applications in mobile phones with AI agents, marking a fundamental shift in the mobile industry, said Qualcomm President and Chief Executive Officer, Cristiano Amon, at a keynote address at the India AI Summit on Friday.  

“We expect AI is going to have a fundamental shift in the mobile industry where the (AI) agent is going to be at the very center and you can access the agent from your mobile phone, your glasses or a pendant or for anything that you wear,” he said, explaining the potential. “It is going to replace a lot of the OS and in the application definitions we see today, and that is the new future of technology, including the future of mobility.” 

 

The technology will also be central to 6G creating a sensing network at scale, according to the top executive. "There is a process of jumping into large-scale industrialisation. India is becoming a global manufacturing hub as well. With AI, you go from the very beginning with smart manufacturing, automation with the incredible change that is happening in this sector, enabled by those technologies," he added.  

AI can play an important role in infrastructure development of smart cities, increase scale and reach in healthcare, and provide powerful learning tools in education, Amon noted. It can also fundamentally change a few sectors like agriculture, he added.

 

“India has an incredible opportunity with this transformation. We have seen that those big shifts in technology create opportunity, change players. It changed the role of different countries as they provide a global scale for the technology, and that's an incredible opportunity for Indians,” he said.