Big Technology Podcast — Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon: Future of AI Devices, AI Fashion, Blending Reality and Computing
Date: January 20, 2026
Host: Alex Kantrowitz
Guest: Cristiano Amon, CEO of Qualcomm
Episode Overview
Broadcast live from Davos at Qualcomm’s event space, this episode delves into the rapidly evolving landscape of AI-powered devices with Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon. The conversation explores how AI is reshaping consumer electronics, particularly wearables, and industrial settings—examining design, user experience, industry competition, data center expansion, and the blend of technology with fashion. The discussion also touches on critical societal and corporate implications of advancing AI.
Key Discussion Points & Insights
The AI Device Explosion: Beyond Smartphones
- Scale of Opportunity
- Cristiano Amon projects 10 billion AI devices, surpassing the smartphone market.
- The notion of wearables expands from additive phone accessories to autonomous personal AI devices—glasses, rings, bracelets, and watches—potentially all with context-aware AI agents.
“If you have everybody end up getting a watch, a ring, or glasses that’s connected to an agent, then you’re talking about an order of magnitude as big as the phone. And I think that’s exciting.”
(Cristiano Amon, 05:45)
Why Wearables? The Form Factor Debate
- Host questions why new AI devices need to be standalone rather than phone apps.
- Amon responds that humans already choose what to wear, and the challenge is making electronics compact, powerful, and seamlessly integrated.
- Wearables make sense because they're always with you and become logical hosts for AI agents, but devices for the home or office (not worn) are also likely.
“Humans already decided what they’re going to wear a long time ago. ... It’s our job to make electronics very dense and a lot of computing power in small form factors.”
(Amon, 07:05)
- Form factors under exploration:
- Glasses (visual, audio, context-aware)
- Earbuds (audio-first, some with added cameras)
- Pins, pendants, jewelry (experiments with sensor/camera placement)
Envisioning the AI Wearable Experience
- Current/near-future use cases: Contextual information, reminders, transactional commands (e.g., making payments via smart glasses), real-time translation, agenda management by AI agents.
- Agent as “always-on” companion: Device interprets what you see, say, or write, suggesting a redefinition of “computer.”
“It's like you have your friend with you all the time... Or even something like you go into your day and your agent is going to come to you and say, you know, I noticed that right now you seem to be free. Can I talk about your agenda? There’s a conflict we need to resolve.”
(Amon, 11:20)
- Analogy with early smartphones: Unimaginable future uses at launch; initial devices may seem basic, but agents and useful integrations will proliferate.
Proximity & Humanity: Will We Get Too Close to Our AI?
- Host raises concerns over loss of boundaries between human autonomy and AI involvement.
- Amon affirms user control but notes that AI will make computing easier and amplify human potential.
- Anecdote: Compared to the smartphone era providing internet access, personal AI will democratize real-time access to knowledge and augment human skills.
“It’s going to be easier to work with computers and the computers are going to be easier to work with us... The AI won’t forget. But those are going to be interesting things—like with technology, how humans are going to use it and how those are going to be developed.”
(Amon, 15:00)
Human-AI Merger?
- Host asks: “Would you merge with AI?”
- Amon’s quick “no”: Sees AI as augmentation, not replacement; AI is a tool designed by and for humanity, not a candidate for full biological integration.
“I have a very clear belief. I think there's humans, there's humanity. AI is our creation... It won’t take away our humanity.”
(Amon, 17:55)
Fashion Meets Tech: The Wearable “Horizontal” Model
- Style will be essential in mass adoption—consumers demand variety.
- Amon predicts a fragmented market with many brands (horizontal), rather than one vertically integrated device from a single company.
- Devices will compete on both functionality (AI assistant quality) and aesthetics (fashion appeal). The ideal: combining both.
“It's very unlikely that everybody on earth is going to use the same exact glasses. People want different form factors. They want different colors... We're going to see a lot of diversity. Very unlike the phone space.”
(Amon, 22:00)
The AI Device Race: Who Has the Edge?
- Major contenders: Meta, Google, Apple, OpenAI.
- Amon: Early days—unclear who wins. The critical factor: owning the “edge” (devices you carry) versus serving from the cloud/data center.
- Contextual, real-world data and device-level intelligence will likely be more powerful than generic internet-trained models.
“The winner of the edge is going to be the winner of the AI race.”
(Amon, 24:30)
Why Aren’t Personal Assistants “There” Yet?
- Host notes that despite investment, assistants are still not highly context-aware.
- Amon responds: AI models are rapidly improving (reasoning, context, “chains of thought”), but require significant local (device-side) compute for real-time experiences. Latency is intolerable for many interactions.
“You cannot do everything on the cloud because ... latency is not going to be useful for you.... You don’t tolerate any delay.”
(Amon, 27:00)
AI PCs: Promise and Reality
- Market confusion: Consumers are not buying PCs for AI features (yet); AI is more confusing than immediately valuable.
- Enterprise & SaaS opportunity: Running AI locally on devices can lower cloud costs, enable new software models, and create faster, more private user experiences.
“If you could rely on the computing that is available on the PC, not only is it going to be faster, but it has a completely different economics.... You can run that model that summarizes your text in the computer, that’s free.”
(Amon, 33:30)
Qualcomm’s Strategic Push into AI Data Centers
- From edge to cloud: Qualcomm brings its low-power, efficient design from smartphones to inference-focused, energy-efficient AI data center chips.
- Amon describes the trend toward “heterogeneous compute”: different engines for different tasks, a model pioneered in mobile.
- Anticipates massive demand as economic realities (energy, cost) hit the inference wave.
“We're building what we believe is post-GPU... If you look at a Snapdragon today, it has several engines for different things. We don’t run everything on a CPU or even for that fact on the GPU. Data centers are going to that.”
(Amon, 40:10)
Robotics and Industrial AI: Real and Immediate Opportunity
- Industrial robots: Immediate opportunity for robots that do repetitive but impactful tasks (warehousing, manufacturing, supermarkets). The “full home assistant robot” is further off.
- China’s edge: Speed of prototyping and manufacturing gives China an advantage in robotics, but partnership and ecosystem remain critical.
“A robot that can do certain tasks and do that task over and over, that's actually not a hard problem to solve.... I believe the opportunity from a business standpoint is massive.”
(Amon, 42:45)
- Industrial AI’s overlooked potential: Applying AI (e.g., vision systems for quality control, inventory, smart infrastructure) offers enormous opportunity across all sectors, even if it lacks consumer hype.
Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments
-
On the inevitability of wearables:
- “We don’t know how those things are going to pan out. But I think going back to your question, wearable is logical ... and carrying around.”
(Amon, 09:01)
- “We don’t know how those things are going to pan out. But I think going back to your question, wearable is logical ... and carrying around.”
-
On blending fashion and function:
- “You're going to have the combination of fashion and technology ... different brands for different people from different age groups.”
(Amon, 21:45)
- “You're going to have the combination of fashion and technology ... different brands for different people from different age groups.”
-
On democratizing knowledge:
- “The ability for you to have access to knowledge in real time, I think there’s an incredible opportunity to actually democratize knowledge and learning.”
(Amon, 16:24)
- “The ability for you to have access to knowledge in real time, I think there’s an incredible opportunity to actually democratize knowledge and learning.”
-
On edge compute as the future:
- “The humans don’t knock on the data center and say, give me some AI ... whoever had access to that data is in a very, very strong position.”
(Amon, 25:16)
- “The humans don’t knock on the data center and say, give me some AI ... whoever had access to that data is in a very, very strong position.”
-
On long-term impact:
- “If we go back to the year 2000 ... what we thought back then what the Internet would be ... today, 25 years later, is way bigger than people thought it would be. I think AI ... in the long run is going to be bigger than people think.”
(Amon, 50:00)
- “If we go back to the year 2000 ... what we thought back then what the Internet would be ... today, 25 years later, is way bigger than people thought it would be. I think AI ... in the long run is going to be bigger than people think.”
Timestamps for Important Segments
- [03:51] — Projecting the AI device market: how wearables become mainstream
- [09:58] — What the user experience of future AI wearables could be
- [13:52] — Human/AI boundaries: Do we risk being “too close” to our computers?
- [15:43] — Would you merge with AI? (Amon’s rapid refusal and reasoning)
- [19:20] — The “glasses vs. earbuds” debate and the importance of vision/context
- [21:16] — Fashion and tech: why one-size-fits-all fails in wearables
- [24:02] — Which company will “win” the AI device race?
- [26:45] — Why aren’t digital assistants actually smart yet?
- [29:39] — Introduction to AI PCs: promise vs. consumer confusion
- [36:44] — Qualcomm’s entry to the AI data center arena
- [40:53] — Robotics: immediate reality vs. sci-fi home robot promise
- [46:34] — Industrial AI: massive but unsung opportunity
- [49:28] — Can AI and device buildout sustain this momentum?
- [52:32] — Will AI become corporate altruism or just another tool?
Tone and Style
Throughout, the discussion is forward-looking, optimistic, and occasionally humorous, mixing practical observations with big-picture speculation. Cristiano Amon maintains a pragmatic, engineer’s perspective, highlighting both business realities and the importance of “human” factors in technology adoption. The mood is lively and approachable, well-suited to an audience seeking real insights behind the hype.
Conclusion
This Big Technology Podcast episode presents a uniquely “inside” view of the coming era of AI-driven personal and industrial devices. Cristiano Amon pulls back the curtain on why wearables are poised to surpass even the smartphone, what obstacles the industry must overcome, how the fashion-tech convergence will shape adoption, and where the next big hardware and software opportunities lie—across devices, data centers, and industries. The episode is a must-listen (or must-read) for anyone interested in the intersection of AI, design, and mass technology adoption.