Google, Oppo, Moto, and Honor are finally giving us the AI we deserve
I don’t know about you, but I’m tired of the term AI. When every company in the industry is using the term, it loses its meaning, and I’m tired of more AI use cases that I barely use. Artificial intelligence was meant to make our lives easier, but the first era of AI was all about generative uses. It has led to millions of means, can help anyone become an artist, and has led to a deepfake era that phone makers are also hoping to use AI to solve.
The First Era of AI
Yet, the lack of a use case that everyone desires has also meant we’re about to enter the next era of agentic AI. The difference is key: the first era was about creating new content, and the second era is all about AI being used to make your life significantly easier. I’ve just experienced five different examples of the future of AI, and it’s clear that we’re finally about to get the AI that we have been dreaming about.
Google's Advancements in AI
Google is pushing AI on smartphones forward for the hundreds of millions of users who use Gemini or OEM partner AI solutions. The future of Google Gemini was on show at the Android Avenue at MWC 2025, and what I saw made me super excited. First, AI is finally addressing one of the biggest issues since the advent of the smart home: getting things to work together properly. Instead of needing to build complex routines yourself, you can now prompt Gemini to do so for you.
The example used to demonstrate was of a dog sneaking a cookie from a kitchen counter. The demo showed the user first asking Gemini to review footage and find out whether it was the pet or the child. Then the demo asked Gemini to build a routine so the lights would come on, and a preset broadcast would go out to all speakers to stop this. This is the type of AI feature that I can see my mother using, as is the preview of the new Gemini Live.
Moto's AI Features
Motorola didn’t unveil any new hardware at MWC, but that didn’t stop it from showing off a suite of new AI features that will transform how you use your phone. The biggest of these is Smart Connect, which will transform the integration of all Android and Windows devices, not just those made by Motorola and its parent company, Lenovo. It also provides the best ecosystem integration I’ve seen, aside from Apple’s.
Smart Connect allows you to link a laptop, tablet, and phone together to open a range of new features. These include easily transferring files and mirroring the screen. There are also some nifty AI tricks, such as being able to search images, documents, and files across all your linked devices and launching apps on a device using Moto AI on another device. In particular, Lenovo and Motorola are taking a different approach to the one deployed by many tech companies.
Revolutionizing Translation with Oppo, Honor, and Tecno
One of the AI use cases I’ve been most excited about is real-time translation. Oppo, Honor, and Tecno revealed new solutions that could make this a reality. Oppo launched the world’s thinnest foldable — the Oppo Find N5 — two weeks before MWC, meaning its presence during the show was focused on its AI efforts in partnership with Google Gemini. The most exciting part of the AI Summit was the reveal of real-time translation during phone calls, which should roll out to users in the coming months.
Honor also tackled the same problem using an entirely different approach. While Oppo’s translation feature is only for phone calls, Honor’s is designed to tackle the problem of live translation during conversations. Its solution? Its first open-ear earbuds, the Earbuds Open, have ANC and offer real-time translation; pass one to the other person, place one in your ear, and you can have a conversation with no one else needed. Tecno took a third approach to solving the same problem but focused more on business meetings and less on portability.
The Rise of Agentic AI Assistants
Each of these features has the ability to make your interactions with other humans much easier, but the next generation of AI is also designed to be the assistant that gets things done for you. Alongside several new products and announcements — including its new AI-focused Alpha plan corporate strategy, 7 years of updates for its flagship smartphones, and several AI demos — Honor showed off its new AI Agent.
Yes, it doesn’t sound as cool as Agentic AI, but the future of AI seems to be about helping people solve complex problems or perform mundane or repetitive tasks. It’s designed to help you live life on your terms, and each of these products will help you do that.
Conclusion
The biggest impact will be from Google Gemini. Google is at the forefront of Android efforts around AI, but it has thankfully recognised that supporting partners is the way to get AI in the hands of the masses. A partnership that started with Samsung Galaxy AI has extended to also working closely with phone makers — including Motorola, Honor, and Oppo — to develop and build new AI experiences.
