Apple rival Honor launches AI phone tools that help users get online shopping discounts and more

BEIJING — Imagine if Amazon gave 20% discounts for each acquisition made utilizing an iPhone Air.

That's fundamentally however Chinese smartphone institution Honor wants to pull section buyers — by giving them an on-device AI instrumentality that lets them rapidly comparison deals crossed Chinese e-commerce sites, including JD.com and antithetic merchants connected Alibaba's Taobao. In 1 illustration seen by CNBC, the Honor AI-powered buying hunt helped prevention 20% since the instrumentality was capable to find coupons that a idiosyncratic mightiness different overlook.

The features and a slew of different AI functions are acceptable to rotation retired Wednesday connected Honor's recently launched Magic8 smartphone arsenic good arsenic the company's different devices successful China. The timing is notable. China is entering its busiest buying play of the twelvemonth akin to Black Friday: the Nov. 11 Singles Day promotional period.

With the AI upgrade, Honor expects to ascent into the apical 3 smartphone brands by marketplace stock successful mainland China by the extremity of this year, Fei Fang, president of products astatine Honor Device, told CNBC successful an exclusive interview. That's according to a CNBC translation of the remarks made successful Mandarin.

In the future, she expects that alternatively than opening smartphone apps directly, users volition progressively entree the functions via an AI portal — which tin past automatically supply customized services down the road.

"We judge this volition hap and we are moving on this direction," she said, noting Honor volition merchandise much AI features successful sports, wellness and companionship astatine its ain ecosystem league connected Oct. 23.

Honor's AI features are activated done the company's "Yoyo" chatbot, which sits wrong the company's Android-based operating strategy called MagicOS.

While Honor said the overseas marketplace has travel to relationship for astir fractional of its revenue, the Shenzhen-based institution indispensable archetypal instrumentality connected Apple to retrieve the archetypal spot successful China.

In the 2nd 4th of this year, Huawei and Vivo shipped the astir phones successful China with 18% marketplace stock each, portion Oppo and Xiaomi vied for 2nd spot astatine 16% stock each, Counterpoint information showed. Apple had 15%, followed by Honor astatine 13%.

Apple has tried to marque a comeback successful China this year. CEO Tim Cook visited Shanghai this week, according to his social media account, coinciding with quality that the slim iPhone Air would yet statesman income successful China this period — weeks aft the caller iPhone 17 deed stores.

However, the U.S. smartphone elephantine has yet to merchandise its AI features successful China, contempt Alibaba Group Chair Joe Tsai's announcement this twelvemonth that the institution would work with Apple connected the tech tools. Neither broadside has yet released further details.

Honor, which spun disconnected from Huawei successful 2020, signed a strategical concern with Alibaba successful September to co-develop AI smartphone features. Alibaba operates the Gaode maps app successful China, a Fliggy question booking platform, arsenic good arsenic the Taobao and Tmall e-commerce platforms.

Fang emphasized that buying is conscionable 1 of galore AI functions that Honor is releasing this week. Other tools see guiding users connected however to instrumentality the champion photograph angle, suggesting adjacent restaurants from conscionable a photograph of a circumstantial determination and hailing a taxi utilizing a elemental dependable command.

With a punctual arsenic vague arsenic "book maine a thrust backmost home," the tech learns from on-device information and idiosyncratic preferences to automatically cognize what the location code is. Personal accusation stays connected the smartphone and isn't transferred to the cloud, Honor said. When it comes to payments, the idiosyncratic inactive needs to manually o.k. it, adjacent if the AI helps with making the online order.

The caller AI features for China users besides travel arsenic ChatGPT is starting to fto U.S. users shop connected Etsy, and soon Walmart, done the AI chatbot interface. Other AI chatbots tin besides hunt the net for circumstantial products.

It remains to beryllium seen whether AI volition beryllium consistently utile for consumers. But Honor said its borderline comes from utilizing AI to implicit aggregate steps, including accounting for idiosyncratic e-commerce memberships and personalized coupons, to amusement consumers the cheapest enactment — with a punctual arsenic elemental arsenic asking for the champion woody connected a product.

Honor said astir of its caller AI features are based connected a self-developed graphical idiosyncratic interface (GUI) AI exemplary that learns from however a quality interacts with a smartphone surface and crossed apps.

The institution claimed that the AI's quality to larn has enabled accelerated enlargement from 200 tasks successful July to much than 3,000 this fall.

In different cases, Honor said it has agreements with companies specified arsenic nutrient transportation elephantine Meituan and video-streaming level Bilibili to let the phone's AI to interact with the Chinese apps' systems utilizing the "Model Context Protocol (MCP)" tech pioneered by Anthropic.

Honor besides incorporates immoderate AI functions from different companies, specified arsenic Kuaishou's Kling AI video procreation model. Since Kling and different tools complaint per use, that comes astatine a outgo to the smartphone company, which is offering the features to consumers for escaped close now, according to Fang.

"This is 1 of our existent challenges," Fang said. “We person invested rather a batch of wealth successful AI. But we judge we indispensable archetypal make worth for consumers earlier commercialization."

Honor announced successful March it would walk $10 cardinal connected AI implicit the adjacent 5 years. The institution indicated it would marque a important information of the archetypal concern this year.

The spending is portion of Honor's ambitious program announced successful March to go an AI instrumentality company — and a level to link companies with consumers. Like Apple, Honor besides sells astute watches, tablets and laptops.

Outside of China, Honor works with Google for AI and is ranked fourth by marketplace stock successful Europe arsenic of the 2nd quarter, according to Counterpoint.

While Honor doesn't person contiguous plans to rotation retired AI-powered buying overseas, the institution astatine the Mobile World Congress successful Barcelona successful March showed disconnected an AI cause for making edifice reservations connected OpenTable.