For years, we've heard about how artificial intelligence will change the way we use phones and computers. Instead of tapping on apps and clicking on programs ourselves, AI will look through our devices itself to answer our questions. These so-called AI agents have felt just out of reach for years -- but with the latest generation of phone chips, that might finally change.
At Snapdragon Summit 2025 in Maui, I sat down with Qualcomm's AI chief Durga Malladi, who explained how the company's newly announced Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 chip will power what could be the first phones capable of running large language models approaching true AI agent performance.
"I believe we are on the cusp of more personalized assistants coming," Malladi said. He referenced two LLMs, Paage.AI and Anything.AI, that held demos during the summit, saying that both could be used as personal assistants.
"It actually harnesses any of the local documents that you have and pictures and whatnot, everything that's stored on-device, and just taps into it and gets some additional information," Malladi noted.
Lining up the right LLMs and hardware is part of paving the way for AI agents. But getting people to use them is another story.
At Snapdragon Summit 2025, Qualcomm says its new chips make products ready for AI agents. David Lumb/CNET
Are people ready to use AI agents?
Last year, the first laptops packing Qualcomm's Snapdragon X Elite chips for PCs debuted. Despite not having a dynamically different UI, they still had the rudiments of generative AI interfaces with ChatGPT-like prompts. Malladi gave an example: asking his computer what the last email he sent to Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon was. He's now gotten used to using prompts to control his computer.
"I think people will get used to that kind of behavior, and there's no going back from there once you start getting used to it," Malladi said.
But it'll take a lot of familiarization for people to understand how to use AI agents and become accustomed to them.
... continue reading