Honor South Africa says smartphones will unlock the artificial general intelligence era
Honor believes that artificial intelligence (AI) on smartphones will unlock the doors to the artificial general intelligence (AGI) era.
This is according to the Fred Zhou, CEO at Honor South Africa, who participated in a panel discussion on the future of AI at Africa Tech Festival in Cape Town on Tuesday, 11 November 2025.
However, he explained that there are several steps to achieve before AGI becomes a reality, with the first being making AI available to all smartphone users.
“The device is the gateway to enter the AGI era. What Honor offers to all our consumers and partners is: we have our Magic series, which is the flagship,” Zhou said.
“We also have the number series, which was designed for content creators, with 200MP AI Super Zoom cameras, and lastly, our X series.”
He added that Honor doesn’t want AI to be limited to the flagships or high-end devices; it believes the technology should be available to everyone.
In this regard, Zhou said Honor offers AI features on its X series, which is aimed at the mass market. However, he added that no single company can build the AI era alone.
“We will make the intelligent phones accessible for everyone, because in South Africa and in Africa, we have to think about the realities,” he said.
“So we will make the X series, which is accessible for everyone. We partner with a lot of different operators and technical partners in the industry to make the AI more accessible for everyone.”
Zhou added that, to integrate AI into daily life, Honor collaborates with many global partners in its goal to build the AGI era.
According to Zhou, there are three steps to achieving an intelligent world. The first is making AI accessible with affordable devices, and the second is developing intelligent and open ecosystems.
This will enable everyone to participate in AGI, which leads to step three: an intelligent world in which silicon-based robots and carbon-based humans work together.
Democratising AI
Zhou explained that Honor has already made significant progress in achieving the first step, and the company plans to invest $10 billion (R171 bilIion) in AI industries to help achieve the second step.
He said this would be done in collaboration with Honor’s partners, which include Qualcomm, Google, and Intel.
The event included panel discussion between Zhou, tech analyst and Geekhub founder Akhram Mohamed, and Vodacom Group managing executive of brand, marketing, and communications, Andisa Ntsubane.
Mohamed said he agreed that AI needs to be democratised for everybody by offering the technology on devices across various budgets.
“From the flagship right till the entry level. This is very important, because if you look at 10 years back, every company was competing on megapixels, RAM, and processing speed,” he said.
“It’s not like that anymore. Now the competition is really going to be around algorithms, intelligence, and experience.”
He added that AI has the potential to assist people across all walks of life, such as a farmer improving their yield, a student filling the gap in terms of learning, or a businessman creating a strategy just on his mobile device.
“The competitive difference is going to be who is able to implement that experience better,” said Mohamed.
Ntsubane added that the Vodacom Group believes AI will be able to improve its customers’ lives and help connect them to new opportunities, while allowing them to be more productive.
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