A central market question is whether an agent capable of tasks such as booking flights and editing photos will persuade users to switch from their current devices by year’s end amid the broader AI phone boom.

China’s leading smartphone makers are accelerating AI-focused launches to revive growth as global smartphone demand slows, with competitors such as Honor and StepFun rolling out AI-centered devices and assistants.

These moves intensify competition with Apple, which has Beijing-approved plans to roll out Apple Intelligence in China via partnerships with Alibaba and Baidu, while Nubia’s Ni Fei asserts that they are ahead of Apple in AI smart devices.

The push comes as China’s smartphone shipments have declined for five straight quarters amid a memory shortage and higher component costs, with IDC forecasting a global market decline in 2026, making AI-powered phones a potential lifeline for thin-margin Chinese brands.

The broader strategy across Chinese brands involves embedding an agentic layer in the OS to enable autonomous AI actions across apps, using a mix of on-device and cloud models to balance latency and heavy workloads.

NaviX Ultra centers its experience on a voice- or button-activated AI assistant that can perform tasks like photo editing, trip planning, map creation, and seamless app switching.

The device blends on-device AI for quick responses with cloud-based models for more complex requests, balancing speed and capability for AI-driven tasks.

Industry optimism is tempered by the need to shift from feature-adding to task-focused agent performance to deliver a simpler, more capable user experience, according to ZTE/Nubia executives and IDC analysts.

Analysts view agentic AI as a potential turning point for smartphones if it can reliably handle everyday tasks, possibly marking the biggest shift since mobile apps emerged.

ZTE unveiled the NaviX Ultra at the World AI Conference in Shanghai, marketing it as the world’s first agentic AI smartphone that runs ByteDance’s Doubao AI agent and can be activated by voice or a dedicated button.

The NaviX Ultra, showcased at a Shanghai tech summit, is touted as the first agent-like smartphone with access to Doubao AI.

ZTE positioned the NaviX Ultra as the world’s first agentic AI phone capable of performing tasks across apps with minimal user input.