You’ve seen the progress over the years on your phone’s screen: 3G technology was followed by 4G, and now your phone probably connects via 5G in most cases. On the ever-closer horizon lies, you guessed it, 6G.
Unlike the previous G, the 6G went unnoticed. It’s less of a source of hype for consumers and more of a talking point about the telecommunications industry and the networks it depends on.
But this is not the whole story.
This was suggested by Cristiano Amon, CEO of chipmaker Qualcomm, in his speech at the Web Summit on Tuesday. 6G networkIt is expected to hit the US market in early 2030, but it may still have something interesting to offer us.
“6G is designed for artificial intelligence,” he said at the event in Lisbon, Portugal. This will increase connection speed, detect our environment and provide context. Artificial intelligence agents who comes to do things in our name.
After this short and thoughtful comment, I was eager to learn more about what 6G mobile technology can do for the average user. Smart phones That’s why I asked Amon to tell us more about what we can expect from this next-generation networking technology.
Each generation of networking technology has been a gateway to a new experience, Amon said. 2G meant making sure everyone in the world could have a mobile phone, 3G meant connecting your phone to the internet and 4G turned our mobile devices into computers. 5G has brought us essential connectivity and unlimited data.
So what can 6G offer us beyond what we already have?
The obvious answer: even faster speeds and even lower latency. But it’s especially important given the coming shift in how we interact with our AI devices, Amon said.
One of the great advantages of the more advanced large language models we use today: the underlying technology. AI chatbot like ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude and Copilot, is that they understand our natural language, making voice the easiest and most natural way to chat with our AI agents.
“The voice will be important again,” Amon told me. “We will use voice to connect to different agents and devices. This will further improve response times and provide faster connectivity.”
6G will operate an “always-on detection network”.
Qualcomm was one of the early proponents of the potential of AI agents that can autonomously perform tasks on your behalf. The chips are already starting to enable agent experiences on all phones. Portable devices, computer and cars.
When we need to rely on our voice to communicate accurately and securely with agents making payments on our behalf or sending emails to a customer, absolutely seamless connectivity is essential to ensure nothing is lost in translation. According to Amon, 6G will develop its strengths here.
“The devices we communicate with will understand what we say, what we hear and what we see,” he said. “6G will bring context. “We will be surrounded by a “constant sensing network” that will enable our agents to predict what we will do and what we will need next, based on what is happening around us, he added.
On stage, Amon gave the example of applying artificial intelligence to a radio (6G is, like its predecessor, a radio communication technology) so that it can detect disturbances in a room’s radio frequency environment. For example, it can detect changes in a baby’s breathing while in the crib, without the need for a portable monitor. Another example, perhaps less attractive, is facial recognition, which can identify everyone present in a room at the same time.
“I know that sounds a little scary,” Amon said. But the 6G network covering our context will be critical for AI agents to work, he added.
While 6G adoption in the U.S. is still at least five years away and artificial intelligence continues to advance rapidly, it’s hard to predict exactly what will happen when the two technologies eventually collide. But one thing is certain: 6G will enable new experiences, some of which may not have been invented yet.
