New Futuresource CE Analysis Tracks Edge AI’s Silicon Trajectory to 2030

Flagship smartphones now carry more AI compute than many laptop PCs, and smartwatch systems on chip (SoC) are acquiring dedicated neural processors for the first time. In true wireless headphones, more than 700 million chip units ship every year into a market where AI capability is becoming a genuine differentiator. The silicon decisions being made today will define the product landscape through to 2030.

A new Perspectives report from Futuresource Consulting heads to the heart of the subject, to examine where edge AI sits today across personal electronics. It investigates the hardware that’s doing the work, how performance is being measured, and what the trajectory looks like through to 2030.

Smartphones set the pace in an accelerating race

Flagship smartphone SoCs from Qualcomm, MediaTek, Samsung and Apple are now delivering up to 100 TOPS of Neural Processing Unit (NPU) performance. And vendors are scaling NPU performance by around 30% year on year, driven by demand for on-device generative AI, computational photography, real-time translation and large language model support.

The report provides a comparison of where each major vendor sits in the rankings, what their architectures are optimised for, and why the headline TOPS figures that dominate marketing materials often obscure as much as they reveal.

The new frontier for wearables and wireless

According to Futuresource, 94 million smartwatches were sold globally in 2025.  Apple were one of the first to embed AI capability in the form of the Apple Neural Engine (ANE), however dedicated NPUs are now beginning to appear more widely in wearable SoCs. Qualcomm’s newly revealed Snapdragon Wear Elite, claimed to be the first smartwatch chip with a general-purpose NPU, sets a starting baseline of 12 TOPS for the category. This is a signal of how quickly the competitive landscape is shifting.

In true wireless, the picture is equally dynamic. Over 360 million TWS headphones ship annually, and because each earbud often contains its own SoC, the semiconductor opportunity exceeds 700 million chip units per year. Five vendors currently control 92% of that market. The report analyses how AI is being embedded across this landscape, from proprietary NPUs to DSP-based approaches, and where the shift towards genuinely untethered, AI-capable hearable products is heading.

Looking ahead to 2030

Futuresource expects smartphone NPU performance to almost triple by 2030. Smartwatches should at least double, and TWS headphones could soon be on a trajectory towards on-device processing capabilities that make the smartphone an optional companion rather than a required one. 

“These are not speculative scenarios,” says Simon Forrest, Head of Core Technology, Futuresource Consulting. “They are the logical product of chip design trends already in motion. Edge AI offers real advantages in speed, privacy and cost, and traditional coded algorithms are being replaced by machine learned versions that increase efficiency while expanding capabilities. For CE brands, understanding where AI compute is heading, and what the silicon enables, is becoming a fundamental strategic necessity.”

About this report and the Futuresource AI Hardware Tracking Service

The Edge AI in Personal Electronics Perspectives report is part of Futuresource Consulting’s AI Hardware Tracking Service. This is a dedicated research programme examining the components and semiconductors powering AI innovation across consumer electronics and professional AV. Covering more than 30 product categories, it provides NPU performance benchmarking, supply trend analysis and forward-looking AI forecasts for vendors, investors and product strategists.

To find out more or request access to the report, contact www.futuresource-consulting.com

Press Contact: Nicola Finn, Head of Marketing and Communications, Futuresource Consulting, nicola.finn@futuresource-hq.com