Why AI Companies Are Suddenly Building Devices You Might Carry Instead of Your Phone

Image: Digiopedia / Illustration

The smartphone has been the center of personal computing for more than a decade. It is where people communicate, search the web, take photos, manage work and increasingly interact with AI.

Now some of the biggest AI companies are questioning whether the phone should remain the main interface.

Meta has introduced the Muse Charm, a small dedicated device designed around its Muse AI assistant, while OpenAI is developing its own hardware with former Apple design chief Jony Ive. OpenAI also introduced Dots, an AI-agent platform that points toward a more persistent form of digital assistance. fidelity.com+1

The important part is that neither company is simply building another gadget with a chatbot inside it. The broader idea is to make AI something people can interact with continuously, rather than something they have to open inside an app.

The smartphone problem

Phones already provide almost everything an AI assistant needs: microphones, cameras, displays, internet connectivity, powerful processors and access to applications.

That makes replacing the smartphone difficult.

A new AI device therefore needs to offer something a phone does not. That could mean being more accessible, requiring less screen interaction, or understanding the user's surroundings more naturally.

Smart glasses are one example. A user can ask a question without taking a phone out of a pocket. A small wearable can potentially provide information while leaving the user's hands and attention available for something else.

Meta's recent hardware strategy shows this direction clearly. Its AI glasses combine microphones, speakers, cameras and AI services into a familiar form factor, while the new Charm device takes the assistant out of the glasses entirely. The Verge+1

AI agents change the equation

The bigger development may not actually be the hardware.

AI agents are designed to do more than answer isolated questions. They can potentially plan tasks, interact with software and continue working toward a goal.

OpenAI's Dots and Meta's Muse are examples of this emerging direction. The companies are effectively trying to make the assistant itself more persistent and useful before placing it into additional hardware. The Verge+1

That matters because hardware becomes more interesting when the software can actually do something with it.

A microphone alone is not useful because it can hear you. A microphone connected to an AI that understands context and can take actions is considerably more useful.

The difficult part is trust

The biggest challenge may not be technology. It may be social acceptance.

AI devices that can see and hear their surroundings introduce questions about privacy, consent and data handling. Smart glasses have already become a major example of this problem.

In the Netherlands, eyewear retailer Hans Anders suspended sales of Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses in October amid privacy concerns. Dutch regulators have also warned about the difficulty of recording identifiable people in public without their consent. Reuters

That illustrates an important limitation of the post-smartphone vision: a device can be technically convenient while still being socially uncomfortable.

The next interface may be distributed

The most likely future may not involve one device completely replacing the smartphone.

Instead, the phone could become the central computer while glasses, earbuds, watches and small AI devices become different ways of accessing it.

The smartphone would still handle complex tasks and provide a large display when needed. Wearables could handle quick interactions.

That would be less a replacement for the phone than a change in how people use it.

The recent moves from Meta and OpenAI suggest that the next phase of personal computing may therefore be less about finding a new “phone killer” and more about making AI available wherever the user happens to be.