In this episode of Focus, we’re at Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona, exploring AI, robotics, and cybersecurity innovations shaping the future of technology, with insights from industry leaders and exhibitors.

Barcelona

The release of Open AI's ChatGPT has accelerated the development of artificial intelligence and warnings about its impact on society.

Rise of AI

The Mobile World Congress 2025 in Barcelona serves as a pivotal showcase of technological advancement, with a strong focus on artificial intelligence, robotics, and cybersecurity. This year, the event draws 100,000 visitors and features 2,700 exhibitors eager to display their innovations. Key themes include the transformative impact of AI and robotics on industry practices, all encapsulated under the event's theme "Converge, Connect, Create." High-profile attendees include industry leaders and even the King of Spain, highlighting the global interest in tech evolution.

AI and robotics are prominent, with new AI agents and their integration into mobile devices taking center stage. For instance, the world's first GUI-based AI agent by Honor demonstrates advanced capabilities in human-screen interaction. Robotics, tightly interwoven with AI, is poised to introduce futuristic concepts reminiscent of popular culture to reality. As innovation flourishes, companies face challenges in differentiating their products. Display technology, such as foldable and rollable screens, remains a competitive arena, with advancements like paper-optimized displays offering improved user experiences.

Telecom operators are exploring AI-driven autonomous networks to manage operations more efficiently. Meanwhile, in sectors such as sports, AI solutions aid in scouting, as seen with Sevilla Football Club's collaboration with IBM to identify player characteristics efficiently. However, as technological advancements accelerate, the importance of cybersecurity looms large. Companies like Palo Alto leverage advanced AI technologies to stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated cyber threats, ensuring that innovations are deployed securely. The evolving threat landscape necessitates continued innovation in cybersecurity to protect these technological advancements.



AI and robotics take center stage at Mobile World Congress 2025

All the movers and shakers of the tech world are here in Barcelona for the Mobile World Congress. The event theme, Converge, Connect, Create. And 100,000 visitors are in attendance, all taking a look at what the industry's been working on, and even the King of Spain popped by. So we're all talking about AI, we're talking about agents, which is kind of the next generation of AI. We're also talking about robotics, and the intersection of AI and robotics. So those are a few that are really kind of showing themselves here at MWC. When you bring AI to the physical world, all kinds of opportunities start to open up. And some of those things that we all remember from the Jetsons and the space television that we used to watch, those things become really real. The one thing that hits me all the time is innovation is happening everywhere, all around the world. And with some 2,700 exhibitors displaying their offerings, it means there's plenty of opportunities to explore these trends. But imagine being a phone manufacturer in 2025. You're trying to come up with something shiny and new when everything is shiny and new. Mobile phones, AI-driven devices are no longer the future, they're the present. So how do you stay ahead in a space where every new model is pushing the envelope further and further? Display technology will always be important. You see as well, foldable, flexible, rollable displays, et cetera. Next paper is more or less a display which is optimized for the human eyes. I can be now in the fourth generation and you see like there is no reflection or anything and it looks a little bit like paper and it's a really innovative display technology. I started to use it a couple of years already and I would never switch back because I'm obviously a heavy user and I can feel it directly on my eyes that it's calmer, I can sleep better. And this is a technology which is an innovation, which is really a human innovation. And then there's the integration of AI agents. Honor's AI agent is the world's first GUI-based mobile AI agent. GUI stands for Graphic User Interface. It means that our AI agent can understand the user interface of your screen. Then they can take action as a human. So what we're going to do is take the man out of the shot entirely. I could use this with AI eraser myself, but I'm going to do with the AI agent instead. So I just have to press this button here. Remove the guy in the yellow shorts. But the AI is going to go and make it much easier and quicker. Bang, he's gone. Very, very simple, very easy. And in the human world, there's agents that scout footballers. Sevilla Football Club has an AI solution for that too with the help of IBM. We used to have our own tools in order to describe players. We have described them from the numerical point of view and from the categorical point of view since 2021. You interview 300,000 people. And then you want to find someone that has given characteristics. It's very difficult to find across all these reports the characteristics that you are looking for. Give me a player that's a leader. A leader has, for example, some attacking abilities and mobility. The technology is able to understand this and to compare this meaning with the meaning that appears in the hundreds of thousands of reports that we have made. And for telecoms companies, what's the AI solution to support all this innovation? The biggest goal, the next thing is a fully autonomous network. So the operators can leave the network running pretty much by itself and leave it to AI to make sure that it happens. But of course, with all new great technology, there's safety precautions to take. The biggest challenges for our customers is keeping up with the bad guys, right? So they're leveraging AI, you know, to really drive a different scale and sophistication of attack that our customers need to be able to combat. Palo Alto says it's leveraging technology in its platform strategy to help customers be more effective in staying ahead of the bad guys to deliver real-time autonomous security. Cybersecurity and securing AI and the use of AI has never been more important. But as the threat landscape evolves, new challenges will emerge and, of course, more new innovations to resolve them. Microsoft Mechanics www.microsoft.com

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Rise of AI