DT Wants to Free Smartphones from Apps

At the Mobile World Congress 2024, Deutsche Telekom will showcase a visionary AI phone concept, developed in collaboration with Qualcomm and Brain.ai. The concept presents an AI-based assistant that replaces the need for multiple apps on a smartphone. The assistant acts like a concierge, understanding your goals and taking care of the details for you.

For instance, you could ask it to "book a flight to the quarterfinals," and the intelligent assistant would respond to your voice command. The showcase will feature concrete examples that illustrate how an AI smartphone can simplify our lives, from planning trips and shopping to creating videos and editing photos. DT's generative interface, powered by Brain.ai, allows the phone to take over the functions of multiple apps and perform all daily tasks that would typically require several applications.

The concierge can be controlled effortlessly and intuitively through voice and text commands. According to Jon Abrahamson, Chief Product & Digital Officer at Deutsche Telekom, "Artificial intelligence and Large Language Models (LLM) will soon be an integral part of mobile devices. We will use them to improve and simplify the lives of our customers. Our vision is a magenta concierge for an app-free smartphone - a real everyday companion that fulfills needs and simplifies digital life."

To showcase the concept, real-life scenarios were integrated into Telekom's T Phone. Brain.ai is working with the company to create an app-free interface where the AI predicts and generates the next interface contextually, flowing with your thoughts. This means users can focus on what they want, instead of how to get there. The AI is located in the cloud, resulting in an authentic and rewarding user experience that is accessible even on entry-level smartphones.

DT will also showcase another version of an AI smartphone powered by the Snapdragon 8 Gen 3 Reference Design. In this high-performance device, the AI processing is done on the phone itself, making it particularly fast, energy-efficient, and customized for each user. The partners' joint development teams are continuously working on implementing the concept. At the trade fair, the partners will show prototypes that offer a glimpse of a potential future and bring it to life. However, it may take some time before these products become available to customers in stores.