Samsung and Qualcomm expand partnership into AI wearables

Samsung and Qualcomm are expanding their partnership beyond smartphones to focus on a broader ecosystem of AI-integrated wearables, including smartwatches, XR devices, and smart glasses.

At the Snapdragon Summit 2026, Qualcomm highlighted a strategy where the smartphone remains the central hub, while wearable devices act as the eyes, ears, and sensors for a personal AI agent. This ecosystem aims to allow seamless context sharing between devices, such as glasses recognizing objects and watches tracking activities to inform a unified AI experience.

To support this, Qualcomm introduced the Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 platform. Designed for earbuds, headphones, and audio glasses, this platform features low-power Wi-Fi 6E integration. This technology allows audio devices to connect directly to cloud services, reducing their total dependence on a smartphone for internet access and AI processing. The platform also emphasizes local AI execution and high-fidelity audio through technologies like aptX Lossless.