At the 10th edition of India Mobile Congress (IMC) 2026 at Yashobhoomi, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. is demonstrating how connectivity and computing are converging to power the next era of agentic AI. Through its “Connectivity Plus Compute” approach, Qualcomm is bringing intelligence closer to where data is generated – across devices, the edge and the cloud – enabled by reliable, high-performance networks.
This distributed architecture enables AI systems to understand context, make decisions and take action in real time, laying the foundation for more capable, responsive and AI-native experiences.
Commenting on the showcase, Rajen Vagadia, President, Qualcomm India, said: “6G is being designed to be AI-native, with networks that integrate connectivity and compute. The adoption of agentic AI will significantly increase demand for both. Trust, security, and affordability will be fundamental to scaling agentic AI and meeting them will require workloads to be distributed intelligently across endpoints, devices, the network, and the cloud. Our showcase at IMC offers a glimpse of this transformation, including AI agents running across devices.”
From connectivity to connectivity plus compute
Traditionally, networks were built primarily around connectivity, with compute playing a supporting role. As agentic AI drives demand for compute, the network is no longer simply a connectivity layer – it becomes connectivity plus compute. Alongside hyperscalers and cloud providers, telecom operators will increasingly become part of this distributed compute ecosystem, with AI processing shared across the device, edge and cloud. Qualcomm’s showcase at IMC brings this architecture to life.
Key highlights at the Qualcomm booth
AI agents on the device: Smartphones, earbuds, glasses, pendants and other emerging form factors will increasingly serve as interfaces for AI agents, with some AI processing happening directly on the device. The Snapdragon 8 Elite Extreme Gen 6 can run mixture-of-experts models of up to 30 billion parameters on a smartphone, and booth demonstrations show AI agents running directly on devices.
Disaggregation of inference: In what Qualcomm calls the disaggregation of inference, part of the AI processing happens on the device and part across the edge or cloud, depending on the task. This helps balance performance, affordability, security and scalability. Qualcomm’s data centre showcase highlights energy-efficient computing designed for AI inference and agentic workloads.
AI-native networks and integrated sensing: As 6G is designed to be AI-native, AI functionality will increasingly be integrated into the radio access network (RAN), creating new compute requirements within the network itself. Agentic RAN Management, part of the Qualcomm Dragonwing RAN Automation Suite, interprets high-level intent, analyses network conditions and coordinates execution with human oversight. In collaboration with Tejas Networks, a live Integrated Sensing and Communication (ISAC) demonstration shows how a commercial 5G base station can combine communication with object detection and tracking. This lays a foundation for applications such as traffic management and drone and vehicle tracking. Sensing capabilities demonstrated on 5G today are expected to become more deeply integrated into 6G, generating new AI and compute workloads of their own.
Edge AI for industry: Processing data close to its source allows AI systems to respond quickly to changing conditions. An autonomous mobile robot reasons and responds in real time. A predictive maintenance demonstration with Nagarro, running on an edge device powered by the Qualcomm Dragonwing IQ9 Series, analyses machine data to identify anomalies and anticipate failures, helping operators reduce downtime. An interactive smart mirror demonstration illustrates edge AI in everyday settings.
Intelligent mobility: The new Mahindra BE 6 SPORTEQ, powered by Snapdragon Cockpit Platform showcases Mahindra’s Artificial Intelligence Architecture (MAIA) demonstrating contextual in-car interactions, showing how Snapdragon-powered cockpit AI brings personalised experiences to Indian consumers.
Together, these demonstrations connect capabilities available today with Qualcomm’s work towards AI-native 6G, where the network becomes an intelligent, distributed compute fabric – not just a connectivity network.
Visitors can experience the demonstrations at the Qualcomm Booth A10, Hall 2, Yashobhoomi, until October 10.
