Alibaba is reportedly partnering with Chinese smartphone maker Honor to develop a new generation of AI agentic devices, marking another step in the race to bring autonomous AI assistants from the cloud directly onto consumer hardware. The partnership is expected to be announced at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, where both companies are likely to showcase new AI capabilities for next-generation smartphones and connected devices. The collaboration combines Alibaba’s Qwen family of AI models with Honor’s Agentic OS, a next-generation operating system designed to support AI agents capable of completing complex tasks with minimal user input. The move reflects the growing industry shift from traditional AI assistants toward autonomous, “agentic” AI systems that can plan, reason, and execute multi-step workflows across apps and services. The partnership is part of China’s broader push to lead the next wave of AI-enabled consumer devices.