Qualcomm at SXSW: AI is the heart of the next UI revolution

Thanks to generative AI (GenAI), technology is becoming a bigger part of our daily lives. AI will be here to help, making our devices and services work better together, putting you at the center.

Agentic AI will make interactions more suggestive and anticipatory rather than prompt and response. AI will now become more useful and integrated into our daily lives. This shift is coming, and discussing it was a key focus for us via Qualcomm CEO and President Cristiano Amon’s keynote at SXSW. “We are at the beginning of a very big transition in technology. I think AI is a generation of change,” he said. “It’s going to change how we interact with our computers.” 

This signals a major shift in how we interact with our devices, underscoring the magnitude of change that AI brings. Qualcomm has been at the forefront of transformative tech for 40 years, from pioneering mobile technology to connecting phones to the internet, to driving the app economy. Now, we're ensuring you're ready for the revolution by equipping phones, computers, cars and more with the power to handle AI tasks on-device.

Agentic AI transforms how we interact with technology

Back in the day, typing in prompts was the only way to navigate a PC. Then came the mouse. Phones came with numeric keypads until the qwerty keyboard ala blackberry changed our input behaviors on small devices. Fast forward a decade or so, touch and swiping ushered in the smartphone era. Since then, the addition of voice based interactions for dictation, search and simple tasks made their way onto phones, speakers and in-vehicle displays.All this evolution running in parallel with advancements in machine learning (or AI). 

AI has been running in the background for years, making how we interact with our devices simpler and delivering enhanced experiences. In fact, Qualcomm has been developing, researching and commercializing AI for more than a decade. Less than 24 months ago, GenAI thrusted itself to the forefront and created an inflection point, changing how we will interface with technology going forward. Through multi-modal entry point capabilities, Agentic GenAI will act as a trusted companion, able to be trained and learn, to see what you see and hear what you hear. And as you allow AI access to your personal graph, agents will act as a digital assistant, personalized and contextualized to be increasingly helpful, suggestive and ultimately more useful.  

We showed off the capabilities of an agentic AI at SXSW through a demonstration from Left Field Labs, where agents help you in both everyday and more project-based scenarios from planning and scheduling travel and daily tasks to picking home décor for a remodel, while staying on budget. Instead of having to navigate a multi-app -centric experience, where you’re jumping between different apps on your phone, you experience a human-centric flow, where you’re having natural, interactive conversations with your Agent and it, in turn, does the heavy lifting in the background.

Meet RAiDiO.FYI

Another fantastic example of this kind of interaction is RAiDiO.FYI, a feature for creatives found in the FYI.AI app. Talk to it like you would a friend, sharing memories or stories, and watch it help you craft lyrics or scripts. 

Grammy Award-winning creative artist will.i.am, founder and CEO of FYI (Focus Your Ideas), joined Cristiano on stage at SXSW to discuss the amazing opportunities unleashed by their collaboration, and the industry-leading solutions it takes advantage of. 

FYI.AI is a powerhouse for generating ideas and content. During the keynote, will.i.am demoed the RAiDiO.AI stations, which include AI personalities you can interact with. In fact, one of these personalities participated in a bilingual conversation with will.i.am, illustrating what’s now possible with AI. 

The benefits of AI at the edge

Qualcomm has spent years building products and solutions that have enabled intelligent computing in everything from smartphones to PCs to cars to smart glasses, and beyond. 

Our Snapdragon processors come with AI-optimized neural processing units (NPU). NPUs enable developers to create compelling on-device AI experiences that are real-time, power-efficient and differentiated. Users will benefit from NPU-optimized applications with and without connectivity to the cloud, and without compromising CPU performance or battery life. As an example, this week we demoed Moises Live running on our Snapdragon X Series NPU, which enables musicians to separate instrument audio in real time. 

Qualcomm will continue to drive the technology revolution to deliver human centric AI solutions across product categories at the edge: delivering personal, private, real-time and contextualized user experiences for everyone.