The AI selected a restaurant but was unable to finalize the reservation due to the requirement of a credit card for confirmation, prompting the user to take the lead. Flexibility in queries is key—in one instance, requesting a “highly rated” restaurant led the AI to evaluate reviews with top ratings; however, it does not conduct further research beyond that. This data processing occurs on the device itself, meaning no information is transmitted to the cloud.
This form of proactive artificial intelligence is currently a hot topic in the technology world. My colleague Will Knight recently tried out an AI assistant that can navigate the web and execute online tasks. Last year, Google introduced its Gemini 2 AI model, designed to perform actions on users’ behalf. Additionally, it brings back the concept of a generative user interface for smartphones—at MWC 2024, several companies showcased methods to interact with applications without traditional apps by utilizing AI assistants to create a user interface based on spoken commands.
Honor’s strategy resembles what Rabbit—the creators of the controversial Rabbit R1—are implementing with Teach Mode, which allows users to train their assistant manually to accomplish a task. This eliminates the need to access an app’s Application Programming Interface (API), the conventional method for apps or services to communicate. Instead, the assistant retains the process in its memory, enabling users to simply issue commands for task execution.
However, Honor asserts that its self-sufficient AI execution model is not designed to adhere to strict protocols—it possesses the ability for multimodal screen context recognition, enabling it to carry out tasks independently. Rather than requiring exhaustive training on every aspect of the OpenTable app, it understands the semantic elements of the user interface, allowing it to complete a multi-step process to fulfill user requests. Honor emphasized that this approach is more cost-effective: “Contrary to competitors like Apple, Samsung, and Google, which depend on external APIs that incur higher operational expenses, Honor’s AI Agent autonomously manages an extensive array of tasks.”
Photograph: Julian Chokkattu
