Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET

Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.

---

ZDNET's key takeaways

• Lenovo and Motorola launch Qira. 

• Qira works seamlessly across all your devices. 

• A new AI pin is infused with Qira.  

  ---

While Lenovo and Motorola made a splash at CES with their latest hardware launches, including the highly anticipated Motorola Razr Fold, the companies also made an exciting announcement in the realm of AI.

Lenovo Qira is an AI assistant that works across the vast ecosystem of Lenovo and Motorola devices, including smartphones, wearables, PCs, tablets, and more. The assistant goes a step beyond traditional chatbots, such as ChatGPT, by performing actual tasks across devices and apps, including transferring files between devices, both online and offline. 

Also: CES 2026: Biggest news | Best of CES 2026 Awards (CNET)

"Lenovo Qira is not another assistant, it's a new way intelligence shows up across your devices," said Dan Dery, VP of AI Ecosystem in Lenovo's Intelligent Devices Group. "Our goal is to make AI feel less like a tool you use and more like an intelligence that works with you, continuously and naturally."

Motorola also unveiled an AI wearable that will incorporate Qira. Although it is a proof of concept, I got a demo, and it looks really promising. 

An ambient intelligence system

Qira is described as a personal ambient intelligence system, meaning it is context-aware and available across multiple devices. Qira builds what Lenovo calls a fused knowledge base, which combines user-selected interactions, documents, and memories from across devices to create a personalized experience and develop a "living model of the user's world". 

Also: The weirdest tech I've seen at CES 2026 - so far 

This should help make the experience intuitive for users by eliminating context switching and requiring minimal background information to complete tasks. Some suggested uses include Next Move, which offers contextual suggestions tailored to your current task, and Catch Me Up, which provides users with summaries of what happened while they were away.

Lenovo said that user privacy and consent are at the assistant's core, with a hybrid architecture that prioritizes on-device processing and keeps personal data local. In instances where sending information to the cloud is necessary, Lenovo states that it utilizes secure cloud services with robust safeguards.

It will first be rolled out to select Lenovo devices in Q1 2026 and then expanded to supported Motorola smartphones afterward. On Lenovo devices, the experience will appear as Lenovo Qira, while on Motorola devices, it will display as Motorola Qira. 

Project Maxwell 

Sabrina Ortiz/ZDNET

While AI pins have been attempted before and notoriously failed, the 312 Labs at Motorola have built Project Maxwell to take a different approach. Motorola describes it as an "AI Perceptive Companion Proof of Concept".

The pin uses Motorola Qira to help with everyday tasks when you don't want to use your phone. It has a camera on it, so the Qira has the context of what you are looking at to provide you with assistance. The pin itself features a magnetic back, which also has a chain attached for use as a necklace.  

Also: Why Nvidia's new Rubin platform could change the future of AI computing forever

In the demo, Project Maxwell was used to assist with various tasks, including obtaining directions, ordering an Uber, and sending a text. In each of these instances, the user did not have to take out their phone; rather, they just spoke directly to the PIN. Then, the pin carried out the tasks from end to end. While this may sound like any other AI assistant, the key lies in understanding how it accomplished the task. 

While you don't need to look at the phone for the tasks to be done, if you choose to, you can see how Qira reasons through every step in the process to complete the task thoroughly. In the Uber example, it opened the Uber app, entered the requested location, selected the payment method, and submitted the full request for a vehicle. 

While much simpler, the sending text example was similar. Quira opened the app, selected the correct contact, entered the text in the field, and then sent it. This type of agentic assistance, packaged in a light and convenient form factor, could be a helpful companion for the day.