IPhone in German: Deutsche Telekom and Perplexity promise to release AI Phone with a skilled AI agent

Germany’s Deutsche Telekom (DT), Europe’s largest telecommunications company, is developing a mid-range AI Phone smartphone powered by artificial intelligence in close collaboration with Perplexity and other tech companies including Picsart. The AI ​​Phone will not only be able to answer questions, but also perform various actions for the user.

Image source: Deutsche Telekom

Deutsche Telekom board member Claudia Nemat said the company is actively transforming itself into an AI company, while emphasizing that DT is not creating its own language models, but is focused on developing AI agents. According to TechCrunch, the smartphone’s AI assistant will be called Magenta AI.

The project’s key partner will be generative search startup Perplexity. CEO Aravind Srinivas said Perplexity is taking a step forward “from being a simple answer machine to being an action machine.” He said the system will be able to book flights, send messages, and even make calls on behalf of the user.

It should be noted that attempts by mobile operators to enter the smartphone market are not so new. Earlier, Amazon tried to create an alternative to Apple and Google with its first smartphone Fire Phone, but it failed to gain popularity. However, the current wave of interest in artificial intelligence definitely gives operators a new chance to attract users with innovative features.

Interestingly, the collaboration between DT and Perplexity began back in April 2024, and the first mentions of the AI ​​Phone device appeared at the largest mobile technology exhibition – MWC 2023. Details of the AI ​​Phone have not yet been disclosed, including technical specifications, operating system and manufacturer. However, renders indicate that the smartphone will most likely run on a modified version of Android.

The device will be unveiled in the second half of 2025 and will go on sale in 2026 at a price of less than $1,000. The smartphone will initially be aimed at the European market, DT representatives said.