Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon has declared that AI agents are poised to replace traditional mobile apps as the primary way people interact with technology. In an interview with CNBC's "The Tech Download" podcast on June 16, Amon outlined a future where conversational AI agents handle complex multi-step tasks on behalf of users, reducing the need to navigate individual apps manually.
"Those agents are going to be the new app," Amon told CNBC. He compared the shift to the move from feature phones to smartphones, saying apps are "not dead, but apps are going to change." Instead of tapping through separate banking, travel, or shopping apps, users will simply tell their AI agent what they need and let it execute across multiple services.
A New Hardware Ecosystem
To support this agent-first paradigm, Qualcomm is developing more than 40 new AI-powered device form factors. These go far beyond the traditional rectangular smartphone, spanning smart glasses, camera-equipped earbuds, wearable pins, smart jewelry, and advanced smartwatches. "Right now, we have over 40 designs of those devices, and the types of form factors are very, very broad," Amon said.
The core design principle is that these devices must be always-on wearables capable of seeing the world around them. "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 explained.
Smart Glasses at Smartphone Scale
Amon is particularly bullish on smart glasses, predicting they will scale from tens of millions of units shipped annually to "hundreds of millions" within just two years — potentially rivaling the smartphone market, which shipped 1.26 billion units globally in 2025 according to Counterpoint Research. Major players including Meta and Samsung are already developing competing smart glasses products.
The CEO emphasized that smartphones won't disappear, but their role will shift. "The phone is around the agent," he said. "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."
Why AI Companies Are Building Hardware
Amon noted that traditional AI software companies are now entering consumer hardware to control the endpoints where agents operate. The most prominent example is OpenAI's 2025 acquisition of io, the hardware startup founded by former Apple design chief Jony Ive, for $6.4 billion. These companies need direct access to user data generated by wearable devices to train future, more personalized AI models.
"So those companies want to have access to the data, because it's important to train future models," Amon said, "and to create 'bespoke' AI experiences for users." The data generated by always-on wearables is expected to be "exponentially larger" than current training datasets.
Chip Roadmap Overhaul
Supporting this vision requires a complete rethinking of Qualcomm's silicon. Amon admitted that current mobile processors are not built for the coming AI workload, announcing that Qualcomm's entire chip roadmap is undergoing a major upgrade. Next-generation Snapdragon chips will need to deliver significantly higher AI performance while drastically improving energy efficiency to fit inside compact, always-on wearables.
The announcement has broad implications for the smartphone industry. If AI agents truly become the new interface, it could reduce the importance of app stores, operating systems, and even the hardware features that currently differentiate phones. Android Headlines reports that the shift could see Qualcomm competing not just with Apple and Samsung, but with a new generation of device makers bringing AI-first hardware to market.
What This Means for Users
For everyday consumers, the agent-first future means less time swiping through apps and more time describing what you want in natural language. Amon gave a concrete example: instead of opening your banking app and navigating multiple screens to find a specific transaction, you simply ask your agent, and it retrieves the information instantly. The same principle applies to booking travel, ordering food, managing calendars, and controlling smart home devices.
However, the transition raises important questions about privacy and data control. Always-on wearable devices with cameras and microphones capture enormous amounts of personal data, and the companies that control these agent endpoints will have unprecedented access to user behavior. As recent executive orders on AI security highlight, regulators are increasingly focused on how AI systems handle sensitive user data.
The Bottom Line
Amon's vision marks a potential inflection point for consumer technology. If he's right, the app icons that have defined mobile computing for 15 years may fade into the background, replaced by always-listening AI agents that anticipate and execute our needs. Qualcomm is betting billions on this future — and building the chips, devices, and ecosystem to make it happen.
For more on the shifting AI landscape, check out TekMag's coverage of how open-source models like GLM-5.2 are disrupting the AI market and ChatGPT's declining market share.
