From handset to hub: Smartphone's quiet reinvention in the AI ecosystem

AI is spreading computing across watches, earbuds, glasses, cars and PCs, changing the smartphone from the primary interface into the hub connecting a growing ecosystem of devices

The smartphone remains the most visible piece of personal technology, but recently several computing tasks have started moving to devices that users may not look at or even think of as computers. Smartwatches can handle calls, payments and health tracking, laptops can pick up tasks from phones, earbuds can provide access to artificial intelligence (AI) assistants, while glasses and newer AI devices can collect information or deliver responses without requiring the smartphone to be in hand.

 

The development points to a broader change in personal computing. Instead of putting more functions on the smartphone and its screen, companies are spreading computing across devices that are better suited to particular tasks. The smartphone is still at the centre of this system, but it is becoming the device that connects everything rather than one that users have to pick up each time they need to perform a task. 

 

Computing is moving beyond the smartphone

The smartphone brought several previously separate devices into one product. Cameras, music players, GPS devices, payment cards and communication tools all became functions of the phone.

 

That consolidation made the smartphone the default interface for digital services. If someone wanted to order food, check a bank account, navigate somewhere or talk to an AI assistant, the first step was usually to take out the phone.

 

That is starting to change.

 

The functions themselves are not necessarily disappearing. They are moving to the device that is closest to the user or better suited to the task.

 

A smartwatch can show a message or provide directions without requiring the phone to be taken out. Earbuds can handle calls and voice interactions. A laptop is better suited to writing and multitasking. A car can provide navigation and communication through its own display and controls. Smart glasses can use cameras and microphones to capture and interpret information from the user's surroundings, while rings, fitness bands and pendants can continuously collect health and activity data. Smart home devices can also contribute information about the physical environment and respond to commands through the same connected ecosystem.

 

This expands computing beyond what a smartphone can directly see, hear or measure. The phone was designed primarily as a device that a person carries and interacts with, while many of these newer devices can remain around the user and collect information or provide services in the background.

 

The phone remains involved in many of these experiences, but it does not have to be the physical interface every time.

 

Qualcomm has been describing this shift in increasingly direct terms. In September, the company said personal AI agents could turn phones, PCs, wearables, earbuds and smart glasses into a coordinated system. It described the future as "agent-centric, not device-centric", with computing split between devices, edge systems and the cloud. 

AI is becoming the layer connecting devices

The spread of computing across devices would be difficult to manage if every product required users to interact with it separately. AI is beginning to provide a common intelligence layer that can understand context, access information and carry out tasks across devices.

 

Google is a useful example. Gemini began as an assistant on Android phones, but Google has since expanded it to Wear OS watches and Android Auto, and is bringing it to intelligent eyewear. The company is also bringing Gemini to cars with Google built-in.

 

In this model, the intelligence does not remain tied to one device. The phone, watch, car or glasses can become the point through which the same AI system is accessed, with the device determining how that intelligence is delivered.

The new Googlebook brings laptops into the Gemini ecosystem as well, allowing users to continue tasks from a phone on a laptop, access phone files and photos, and stream phone apps into desktop windows.

 

Apple has been following the connected-device model through Continuity, allowing users to move tasks, files, calls and other activities between iPhone, Mac, iPad and Apple Watch. Apple's current Apple Intelligence architecture also spans iPhone, iPad, Mac, Apple Watch, AirPods and Vision Pro.

 

Samsung has built a similar approach around Galaxy devices, connecting smartphones with watches, earbuds, tablets, PCs and other products.

 

AI adds another layer to these existing connections. Instead of simply moving a file or continuing an application on another device, the system can increasingly understand what the user is trying to do and provide assistance through the device being used at that moment.

The phone is still doing much of the work underneath

The fact that users can interact with more devices does not mean those devices need to contain everything found inside a smartphone.

 

The phone has cellular connectivity, storage, cameras, processing power, a large battery and access to a mature app ecosystem. It also carries much of a user's digital identity, including accounts, contacts, payment credentials, photos and other personal information.

 

This makes the smartphone useful as a central point even when another device is handling the interaction.

 

A smartwatch can collect health data while the phone stores and displays a longer history. Earbuds can receive a voice request while the phone provides connectivity and access to applications. Glasses can capture an image while the phone stores it and makes it available across other devices.

 

Samsung's approach to intelligent eyewear illustrates this division. The company describes its glasses as a companion to Galaxy smartphones and uses "split computing" to distribute processing between the glasses and the connected phone.

 

The phone therefore does not have to disappear for computing to move beyond it. It can remain the underlying connection between devices that have very different hardware. 

What this means for the smartphone's role

For users, the shift shows up less as a dramatic change and more as a quiet redistribution of small moments. A notification that once required unlocking a phone can now be read on a wrist. A question that once meant opening an app can now be asked aloud through a pair of earbuds. None of this eliminates the phone from the process, but it reduces the number of times a person needs to physically reach for it.

 

This has implications for how companies think about hardware. If the phone is no longer the only surface where a service is used, its screen and app icon stop being the sole measures of engagement. A fitness feature accessed entirely through a watch, or a payment made through a ring, can still depend on the phone's connectivity and accounts, even if the phone itself is never touched. Usage is increasingly happening around the phone rather than only on it, which is harder for companies to track and monetise through a single app interface.

 

This redistribution is not without friction. Battery life, network switching between devices and software fragmentation across smartwatches, glasses and earbuds running different operating systems remain constraints. Splitting computing across several battery-powered devices also multiplies the number of things a user has to charge and keep updated, a practical cost that convenience does not automatically offset.