Qualcomm Ditches Smartphone Dependence With a Wearable AI Chip Built for the Post-App Era

Your phone might be getting demoted. At MWC Barcelona, QualcommQCOM

CEO Cristiano Amon declared 2026 the year of AI agents capable of handling complex, multi-step tasks and shifting the tech ecosystem away from smartphone-centric apps. To power that shift, Qualcomm unveiled its Snapdragon Wear Elite chipset, bringing on-device AI to wearables like pendants, headphones, pins, and watches.

• The push comes as AppleAAPL
  shifts to in-house chips, cutting into Qualcomm’s iPhone modem business and making wearable AI a key strategic pivot.
• Samsung, GoogleGOOGL
  , and Motorola Mobility under Lenovo plan to launch Wear Elite–powered devices, with the first expected by summer 2026.

The long bet: Lenovo’s Luca Rossi noted that the industry’s direction is set to “move from apps to intent,” with the company positioning its AI super agent, Qira, as the orchestrator of multi-device data. Amon put it even more bluntly, “The agent becomes the center… They observe, they interpret, they act.” If that vision plays out, Qualcomm’s wearable bet could help offset business lost to Apple — though predictions of the smartphone’s demise have surfaced many times before.