Nubia has confirmed that it is preparing to introduce a new kind of AI smartphone later this month. Instead of simply adding AI features, the company says its upcoming flagship will bring a system-level AI agent capable of handling complex tasks on behalf of users.
Nubia’s AI agent phone to debut at WAIC 2026
Ni Fei, Senior Vice President of ZTE and President of the company’s Mobile Devices division, has announced that Nubia’s upcoming flagship will be the world’s first AI agent smartphone. The device will make its public debut at the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC), scheduled to take place in Shanghai from July 17 to July 20.
Industry speculation suggests the handset could be the commercial version of Nubia’s second-generation Doubao smartphone, developed in partnership with ByteDance. Its predecessor, the Nubia M153, was previously introduced as a technology preview and reportedly sold out its initial batch of 30,000 units on the first day. Earlier announcements from Shanghai officials also indicated that the new phone would be among the major product launches at this year’s event.
Unlike today’s AI-powered smartphones, which primarily answer questions or generate content, Nubia says its AI agent is deeply integrated into the operating system. The company claims it can understand natural language requests and independently complete multi-step actions across different apps.
For example, if a user asks the phone to book the cheapest flight to Beijing, the AI agent is expected to open the required apps, compare fares, fill in booking details, and complete the payment process without requiring manual interaction.
This is made possible through a GUI agent architecture and an on-device large language model that can visually understand and operate the phone’s interface instead of relying only on app APIs. ZTE also says its in-house CoClaw intelligent scheduling technology enables seamless collaboration across apps and ecosystems for more advanced automation.
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