Vivo Executive Predicts Five-Year Timeline for Generative AI to Drive Significant Smartphone Market Growth

Vivo Executive Predicts Five-Year Timeline for Generative AI to Drive Significant Smartphone Market GrowthHu Boshan, Vivo's Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, recently stated that generative AI will need at least five years to become a key driver of significant growth in the smartphone market. He outlined three stages of generative AI adoption in smartphones and analyzed the current market competition landscape, including the return of Huawei

Vivo Executive Predicts Five-Year Timeline for Generative AI to Drive Significant Smartphone Market Growth

Hu Boshan, Vivo's Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, recently stated that generative AI will need at least five years to become a key driver of significant growth in the smartphone market. He outlined three stages of generative AI adoption in smartphones and analyzed the current market competition landscape, including the return of Huawei.

Hu first outlined three stages of generative AI implementation in mobile devices:

• Stage 1: Enhancing Existing Features: This involves using generative AI to improve existing functionalities like AI noise cancellation and AI-powered virtual assistants. While these improvements enhance user experience, they don't fully leverage generative AI's potential, representing only incremental upgrades.

• Stage 2: Deep Integration with the Operating System: This stage involves deeply integrating large language models with the operating system to enable the phone to understand user intent. This represents the true integration of generative AI into core phone functionality, enabling more personalized and intelligent services. Hu noted that the industry is currently in this stage, and it will last for a considerable time.

• Stage 3: High Hardware Requirements: This stage demands significantly higher computing power. Hu emphasized that current smartphone SoCs lack the performance needed for smooth operation of Stage 3 applications, requiring server-level processing power. He revealed that Vivo currently possesses nearly 10,000 GPU accelerator cards to support AI research and development, but this is only preparatory work; Stage 3 is at least five years away.

Hu's three-stage framework clearly illustrates the evolutionary path of generative AI in smartphones from simple feature enhancements to understanding user intent and finally to complex applications requiring high-performance hardware. This highlights that, despite the rapid development of generative AI, its widespread adoption in smartphones will take considerable time, constrained by current technological and hardware limitations.

Beyond his prediction on generative AI development, Hu also commented on the current smartphone market competitiveness. He believes Huawei's return will be the biggest variable in the Chinese market, with Huawei aiming to reclaim its market share. This signals intensifying competition in the future.

Hu noted that major Chinese smartphone manufacturers are actively seeking their own development paths, creating a fiercely competitive landscape. He predicts this intense competition will continue for the next two to three years, with manufacturers vying for market share through product performance, pricing, technological innovation, and user experience.

Hu's perspective reflects a cautiously optimistic outlook on generative AI's application in the smartphone industry. He acknowledges its vast potential and influence on the future market landscape while recognizing current technological and hardware limitations and the intensity of future competition.

Five years is neither a short nor a long timeframe in the tech industry. Breakthroughs could accelerate the adoption of generative AI in smartphones, or technical bottlenecks might slow progress. Therefore, Hu's prediction isn't definitive but provides valuable insight into future trends.

He envisions a future smartphone market defined by technological innovation and intense competition. Manufacturers will need to continuously improve R&D and innovation capabilities to succeed. The maturity and application of generative AI will undoubtedly be a key factor in this competition.

Hu's insights also remind us that technological advancement isn't instantaneous; it requires continuous accumulation and breakthroughs. Generative AI, despite its vast potential, requires a gradual implementation. We should be patient while actively promoting technological progress and application to better serve user needs.

In conclusion, Hu's perspective offers valuable insights into generative AI's application in smartphones and the future competitive landscape. His predictions provide foresight into future technological trends and guide the direction of smartphone manufacturers. Whether generative AI truly becomes a key driver of smartphone market growth within five years remains to be seen. However, it will undoubtedly be a period of significant challenges and opportunities, and those who best leverage generative AI technology are more likely to dominate the future smartphone market.