AI-agent smartphones feature at Shanghai technology conference

Technology companies are pushing smartphones with artificial intelligence agents that can carry out tasks such as ordering food, comparing prices, booking services and composing messages from voice commands.

At least three companies showed or announced such phones around the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai over the weekend. Nubia displayed the NaviX Ultra, a phone powered by Doubao, the AI chatbot run by ByteDance, the company behind TikTok. Nubia said online that a new period for AI-agent smartphones had begun.

A limited prototype known as the Doubao Phone sold out quickly in December. It was initially able to use voice commands to perform tasks across apps, including food ordering and shopping price comparisons. But Alibaba, Tencent and JD.com later restricted the assistant's access to their platforms. That effectively disabled the AI agent, and ByteDance then turned off the stronger tool in some situations, including when payments were involved.

Kiranjeet Kaur, an associate research director at IDC, said access to apps owned by other companies remains a key obstacle for AI-agent devices. She said platforms want to keep direct relationships with users and risk losing control if another party takes over that interaction. She also said AI-agent performance is still uneven.

Chinese technology media reported that Nubia's NaviX Ultra is designed to work with apps rather than force access into them. Nubia's response to a request for comment was not included in the report.

Honor also showed an AI system for its Robot Phone, which has an interactive camera that flips up on a small robotic arm. Honor said the device can interpret gestures, move to musical rhythms, take selfies and help stabilize video. The company said an agent using several AI models, including some co-developed with Alibaba, will be included when the phone goes on sale later this year.

Shanghai-based AI startup StepFun unveiled the STEPX Neo, described as an AI-agent-native smartphone, before the conference. In a sponsored article carried by Xinhua, StepFun chairman Yin Qi said the company had formed deep partnerships with several major Chinese platforms, including Alipay and Didi. The article said the phone could support travel bookings, daily purchases, local services, office productivity and video editing.

Outside China, Google is adding more advanced AI functions to phones, including appointment-booking features. US startup Brain Technologies launched an agentic Natural AI Phone in Japan in April with SoftBank Corp. In an April demonstration, the phone used an audio command to message a contact and apologize for being late, while also often failing to complete requests.

Marc Einstein of Counterpoint Research said there is not yet a clear winner in the market. He predicted that in five or 10 years, people would not use apps on phones in the same way as today, and said the shift could change digital business models.