The devices market in 2026 will move from AI demos to experimental “agentic” execution—phones that don’t just generate content but can complete multi-step tasks across apps. The catch is that capability will arrive before the industry has fully solved the hard problems: reliability, privacy, security, and liability when an AI agent takes actions on a user’s behalf.
Early signals are already visible. In late 2025, ZTE and ByteDance launched the Nubia M153 with the Doubao agent, designed to navigate third-party apps to do things like booking travel or paying bills. In 2026, the mainstream push is likely to come from platform-level agents. Google, Apple, and Samsung are expected to frame next-generation assistants as OS features that orchestrate workflows—moving the smartphone from a passive interface to something closer to a “digital worker.” High-performance silicon such as Qualcomm’s Snapdragon 8 Elite, alongside emerging agent frameworks, will enable more on-device and hybrid execution.
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Regulation will be the other defining pillar—and it will fragment experiences by region. In the EU, the AI Act should shift decisively from rulemaking to enforcement, increasing audits, conformity assessments, documentation burdens, and penalties, particularly for high-risk systems. The US will likely remain sector-led, shaped by federal agencies, state laws, and procurement rules, while Congress continues debating baseline requirements for safety, privacy, and content provenance. China will continue centralised governance, expanding licensing, security reviews, and watermarking, prioritising social stability, data control, and domestic innovation. For OEMs, “one global AI feature set” becomes harder to sustain.
Hardware innovation will accelerate, especially foldables. The category is poised for a meaningful boost in 2026, driven by two catalysts: a widely anticipated first foldable iPhone and Samsung’s intent to expand tri-fold devices beyond limited markets. Competitors such as Oppo, Xiaomi, and Huawei are also likely to push tri-fold designs, raising competitive pressure on pricing and durability and broadening consumer awareness of new form factors.
Wearables will increasingly market themselves as “AI-first” health devices, moving from generic insights to more personalised coaching, risk flags, and (within regulatory limits) clinically oriented workflows. Expect deeper integration of cloud and on-device inference, better sensors, and improved data linking across devices. New AI-centric form factors may re-emerge alongside watches and bands, emphasising battery life and always-on utility.
AR glasses will inch forward rather than break out. Progress should focus on lightweight use cases—notifications, navigation, translation, and calling—typically tethered to phones. Battery life, cost, and privacy concerns will keep adoption niche, though carriers may position glasses as add-ons to shared data plans.
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By GlobalDataFinally, economics will bite. Component inflation—especially memory—should lift smartphone BoM and push ASPs upward, as AI workloads and data centers absorb supply. Geopolitics will drive chipset constraints and regional model fragmentation. The wildcard remains semiconductor tariffs: even if final tariffs are limited, policy volatility will impose an “uncertainty cost” that OEMs and consumers will feel in pricing and planning.
