Motorola and its parent company Lenovo launched a new system-wide AI assistant on Tuesday that's designed to understand context, suggest follow-up actions and seamlessly move across the companies' various devices. The assistant, called Qira, was unveiled at CES in Las Vegas, along with new hardware including the Motorola Razr Fold, Razr FIFA Edition and Moto Watch.
To use Qira, you won't need to open or switch to a separate application. It's embedded at a system level and can hop between Motorola and Lenovo gadgets like your phone, tablet, PC and wearables, all while maintaining continuity, so you can pick up wherever you left off.
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"It's always present: understanding what you're doing and supporting you in the moment, with your permission," Lenovo and Motorola wrote in a press release. "By sharing experiences with you over time, it learns your intent, anticipates needs and acts in ways that feel natural and personal."
Qira is designed to understand context and reduce the need to search through apps. For instance, the AI assistant might inform you that your flight is today, and once you arrive at the airport, it'll automatically check you in -- no need to dig through any apps or think about which device has what information. Reminders, notes and notifications will be synced across your Motorola and Lenovo devices.
"Our goal is to make AI feel less like a tool you use and more like an intelligence that works with you, continuously and naturally," Dan Dery, vice president of AI Ecosystem in Lenovo's Intelligent Devices Group, said in a statement.
Along with Qira, Motorola debuted the Motorola Razr Fold, which is also compatible with the AI assistant. Josh Goldman/CNET
You can invoke Qira by saying "Hey, Qira" or pressing the dedicated key on your Lenovo or Motorola device. You can use it to draft documents and messages in a tone that resembles your own. Qira can offer real-time transcriptions and translations to help during meetings, along with generating summaries and tallying key points. It can also summarize notifications on your device and highlight the most important things you may have missed since you stepped away. Qira also works offline, so you don't have to depend on an internet connection for it to keep up.
Motorola says Qira will work with other AI platforms like Google Gemini, Microsoft Copilot and Perplexity. The company has teamed up with these major AI players to enable a range of features on its Razr phones, with Qira building on the efforts previously branded as Moto AI. Qira's rollout will further cement those partnerships, and hopefully it'll make mobile AI more intuitive and helpful to use, rather than gimmicky.
Lenovo Qira or Motorola Qira, depending on the device you're using, will first debut on a handful of Lenovo devices in the first quarter of this year, before expanding to supported Motorola smartphones.
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