As tech executives, developers, global media and content creators gathered at this year’s Snapdragon Summit in Maui, there were debates around the next frontier of artificial intelligence, largely inspired by the recent slow down calls by leaders of some of the biggest AI companies. Qualcomm is moving at a different pace though.
In a wide-ranging conversation on the sidelines of the Summit, Don McGuire, Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer at Qualcomm, outlined a clear vision for what he terms the “Agentic Age” — A fundamental shift from generative tools that merely respond to queries to autonomous AI agents that act on a user’s behalf.
Qualcomm wants to provide this experience across Snapdragon powered devices including smartphones, wearables, PCs, automotive and more.
Yet, as McGuire observes, the trajectory of this shift depends heavily on where you look. And right now, India is emerging as one of the world’s most crucial proving grounds.
Unlike Western economies, where debates around generative AI are frequently anchored in fear: fear of job displacement, deepfakes, and intrusive surveillance, India’s sentiment toward emerging technologies is strikingly pragmatic and open-minded. However, delegating real-world tasks to an AI agent requires an unprecedented level of trust. For consumers to let an agent book a flight or complete a transaction, the experience must be seamless, secure, and friction-free.
“We are moving from the generative age to the agentic age, where AI isn’t just answering a prompt. It’s taking action on your behalf,” McGuire explained. “To make that successful, three things must happen: you have to establish utility, you have to build trust, and you have to ensure security. People will only adopt an agentic workflow if it is noticeably easier, faster, and more reliable than doing it manually.”
While Indian consumers are quick to embrace AI-driven tools, the institutional ecosystem presents a more complex picture. India’s banking and regulatory frameworks, governed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), remain deliberately cautious regarding autonomous financial transactions. In the financial and enterprise sectors, regulators and institutions still insist on keeping human control at the center of decision-making. Rather than letting an AI agent execute a payment autonomously, current frameworks mandate human confirmation — the classic “human-in-the-loop” model.
McGuire sees this step-by-step approach not as a roadblock, but as a necessary phase in building long-term user confidence.
“Even if an agent knows your exact preferences, whether you prefer window seats, non-refundable tickets, or a specific airline, it shouldn’t just assume and buy. It needs to come back, present the options, and ask for explicit confirmation. Authentication and confirmation are vital. That’s how you bridge the gap between initial interest and permanent behavioral change.”
India is uniquely positioned to lead the shift to agentic AI thanks to its existing digital public infrastructure. Having already bypassed traditional credit card infrastructure in favor of real-time, mobile-first payment systems like UPI, Indian consumers are uniquely accustomed to digital-first habits. Add to that the rise of quick commerce platforms, an average Indian user is purchasing more online services than any other user in any other part of the world.
As hardware manufacturers integrate NPU-driven, on-device AI capabilities into smartphones, smart hearables, and connected devices, the ground is primed for agentic tools to flourish.
