Qualcomm: AI agents will replace apps; working on 40+ agentic device designs from glasses to earbuds

Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon told CNBC that the next wave of consumer devices will shift from "apps" to "agents"—autonomous AI entities that coordinate across multiple services (booking, payment, email) without user intervention. Instead of pulling out a phone to search restaurants, users will tell their AI agent to make a reservation, and the agent handles the transaction across APIs. "Apps are going to change," Amon said. "Agents are going to be the new app."

Qualcomm is designing over 40 different form factors around this agentic paradigm: smart glasses, earbuds with embedded cameras, jewelry, pins, and watches. The principle: always-on devices that can see the world, run local AI models, and handle natural language interaction. Amon expects smart glasses will eventually rival smartphones in scale—for context, 1.2 billion smartphones shipped last year. The success of agentic devices hinges on striking the right balance between privacy (always-on cameras) and functionality (context for agents to act on).

For architects and hardware makers, this signals where Qualcomm's roadmap is headed: off-device or on-device edge AI as the new moat, not raw processing speed. The shift from app-centric to agent-centric device design will reshape how teams think about APIs, permissions, local-execution safety, and the OS layer—expect new frameworks for agentic orchestration across wearables and ambient devices over the next 12–18 months.