Lenovo is gunning for AI titans like ChatGPT and Google Gemini with the debut of Qira, a privacy-centric ambient intelligence that spans its laptops, tablets, smartphones, and wearables, promising to orchestrate tasks across devices in a way that feels less like a tool and more like an intuitive extension of the user.
Unveiled at CES 2026 in Las Vegas, Qira, branded as Lenovo Qira on Lenovo devices and Motorola Qira on Motorola ones—shifts the paradigm from app-based chatbots to a system-level AI that’s always present with user permission, building a fused knowledge base from interactions, memories, and documents to deliver context-aware, proactive help. Unlike standalone assistants that require launching an app or starting a query, Qira embeds deeply into the ecosystem, handling multimodal interactions, real-time transcriptions, translations, and summaries for meetings, while proactively suggesting next moves, like automatically checking into a flight at the airport based on your calendar.
At its core, Qira focuses on three pillars: presence (natural entry points like voice commands or a dedicated key), actions (orchestrating tasks across apps and devices using local AI, even offline), and perception (creating a living model of the user’s world through cross-device sensing). Key experiences include “Next Move” for contextual suggestions, “Write For Me” for tone-adapted drafting, “Live Interaction” for collaborative screen sharing, “Catch Me Up” for absence summaries, “Pay Attention” for meeting notes, and “Creator Zone” for distraction-free visual editing with on-device text-to-image generation powered by Stability AI’s Stable Diffusion 3.5 Flash. It partners with Microsoft for AI stack integration, Notion for workspace search, Perplexity for sourced answers, and Expedia for travel planning, but prioritizes on-device processing to keep data local and secure.
“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.”
Early hands-on impressions suggest Qira could outpace rivals. One reviewer, after testing Gemini, ChatGPT, and Copilot, praised its ability to execute end-to-end tasks, like ordering an Uber or sending texts, without manual intervention, displaying reasoning steps for transparency, and maintaining a “living model” that eliminates context switching. It scooped the Best AI award at CES 2026’s Best of CES Awards, highlighting its potential in a crowded field.
Qira rolls out in Q1 2026 on select Lenovo devices, with seamless over-the-air upgrades for existing Lenovo AI Now users, expanding to supported Motorola smartphones thereafter. A proof-of-concept wearable, Project Maxwell, an AI pin with a camera for visual context, debuted alongside, enabling hands-free interactions via a magnetic necklace design, though it’s not yet commercialized.
This launch builds on Lenovo’s AI push, following Moto AI on Motorola phones, and positions Qira as a unified layer that works with, but isn’t beholden to, platforms like Google Gemini or Microsoft Copilot.
The AI assistant wars are intensifying, with Apple enhancing Siri, Samsung bolstering Galaxy AI, and startups like Rabbit R1 attempting hardware plays that have faltered. By emphasizing privacy, cross-device continuity, and proactive agency, Lenovo’s Qira could carve out a niche in the ecosystem battle, but its success will hinge on seamless execution and user adoption amid privacy concerns and integration challenges.
