(Yicai) Feb. 18 -- Chinese budget smartphone maker Honor Terminal has said it has drawn up a plan to develop an artificial intelligence ecosystem.

Details of the Honor Alpha Plan will be unveiled at the 2025 Mobile World Congress, scheduled to be held in Barcelona from March 3 to 6, the Shenzhen-based firm announced yesterday.

The initiative, a key turning point in Honor’s efforts to integrate AI more deeply into its devices and services, will be led by Li Jian, who became chief executive on Jan. 17 after having served in various other positions in the company, including vice chairman.

Last week, Honor released the DeepSeek-R1 Network Edition for some phones, with the Magic 7 series and the foldable Magic V2 the first to support it. The edition integrates DeepSeek’s large language model with Honor’s own Yoyo Assistant, enhancing the smart tool's capabilities with deep thinking, intelligent interaction, and personalized services, according to the firm.

Hangzhou-based DeepSeek released the LLM last month, an event described by Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Andreessen as an “AI Sputnik moment.”

The development of AI in smartphones is happening in two stages: first, improving existing functions, and second, using localized edge models to achieve new AI functionalities, according to Guo Tianxiang, China research manager at International Data Corporation.

DeepSeek has not deeply integrated its application programming interfaces with phone makers, but closer collaboration in the future will likely reduce AI usage costs, Guo added.

Over the past year, smartphone makers have established the foundational infrastructure for device-generated AI. Through its AI strategy, Honor aims to differentiate its brand and develop in a global smartphone dominated by Apple, Samsung Electronics, and Huawei Technologies.

The competition has centered on rapidly integrating AI into devices, and the emergence of DeepSeek has intensified the rivalry even further. Samsung has partnered with China's Baidu and Zhipu AI, Apple with Alibaba Group Holding, while Honor, Huawei, and others have integrated DeepSeek-R1 to enhance their AI capabilities.

The AI capabilities of phone makers are expected to improve greatly in the second half of this year by leveraging DeepSeek's open-source features, an executive at one company told Yicai. This will help smaller businesses address shortcomings and lower the barriers to AI use, the person noted.

Honor is focusing on the ecosystem experience in the AI era, said Ivan Lam, a senior analyst at Counterpoint. AI in smartphones is just in the beginning, with emphasis needed on functional integration and customized development to avoid the homogenization of features, he pointed out.

Editor: Martin Kadiev