Edge AI Is Here: Qualcomm’s Dragonwing IOT Day Shared What’s Possible

Demo stations, robots and a wide range of partners gathered to share the art of the possible at Qualcomm’s October Dragonwing IoT event in San Diego. AI has created renewed enthusiasm, innovation and investment within edge computing, IoT, and robotics. In many ways, the event was exactly what you would expect. Qualcomm laid out its strategy for industrial and edge AI, focusing on open development, purpose-built compute, and partnerships for robotics and machine vision. Qualcomm’s message was direct and consistent across the day’s presentations and meetings. It wants to expand its footprint in these markets using the Dragonwing portfolio and the engineering discipline it built in mobile and automotive.

For enterprise buyers, the most useful insights came from discussions on how Qualcomm’s customers were using AI. The audience heard from Zebra, Cognex, Axon, GEOTAB, and Skydio, who didn’t speculate about what edge AI might do someday. These companies described what they are building now, why certain work has to happen on the device, and how it changes for their customers.

Qualcomm’s bet: make the edge easier to build on

Nakul Duggal, who leads Qualcomm’s industrial and embedded IoT and robotics efforts, described a company changing how it works. Qualcomm’s heritage is high-touch engagement with a relatively small number of large customers. The new model is developer-first. Developers can buy evaluation kits from distributors and use documentation, sample apps, and open software practices, including upstream Linux, Ubuntu, and Debian. Duggal shared that a customer should be able to order a kit and get productive without Qualcomm needing to pick up the phone.