Deutsche Telekom and Perplexity team up on an AI phone

Phone makers have spent the past year slowly sliding AI features into their existing operating systems. Now, telecom carriers are trying to flip the script entirely.

Deutsche Telekom, the parent company of T-Mobile, announced at MWC that it is teaming up with Perplexity to build a dedicated AI Phone. The device is expected to retail for under $1,000, with DT unveiling full details in the second half of this year ahead of an expected European launch in 2026.

From answer machine to action machine

Claudia Nemat, DT board member for technology and innovation, declared that the carrier is becoming an AI company. She clarified that DT is not trying to train foundational large language models, but rather focus squarely on AI agents.

At the center of this phone is Perplexity Assistant, baked straight into the lock screen so users never have to unlock and hunt through app icons.

Perplexity co-founder and CEO Aravind Srinivas said the move represents Perplexity shifting from just an answer machine to an action machine. Instead of only summarizing facts, the phone is designed to book flights, make dinner reservations, draft emails, send texts, and make phone calls on your behalf.

DT is also pulling in tools from other AI players. Google Cloud AI will handle real-time language translation, ElevenLabs is onboard for podcast generation, and Picsart will power avatar creation.

Hardware specifications, manufacturing partners, and the underlying operating system remain under wraps, though concept renders suggest a heavily customized take on Android. DT said full specs will land later this year.

For users who do not want a brand-new handset, DT also announced Magenta AI, a standalone app version of the assistant launching this summer for its 300 million subscribers across iOS and Android.

The carrier hardware itch

Carriers trying to challenge Apple and Google is a tale as old as smartphones. Over the years, telecoms have backed Firefox OS handsets and Facebook-centric phones to claw back control over apps and customer relationships. Almost all of those experiments fizzled out.

DT and Perplexity, which is reportedly valued around $9 billion, have been quietly laying the groundwork since April 2024, following a concept tease at last year’s MWC. Perplexity also rolled out an Android assistant back in January, offering a preview of what an agentic OS layer could look like.

Why it matters

For everyday smartphone users, the promise of bypassing app mazes entirely and managing daily logistics from the lock screen sounds genuinely refreshing. But we think nobody should be rushing to budget $1,000 for this hardware just yet. Testing DT’s Magenta AI app when it drops this summer will be the smart litmus test to see whether these action-oriented agents actually work without handholding.

For the AI landscape, this is a massive distribution win for Perplexity. While giants like Google and Apple are slowly baking their own models into dominant mobile operating systems, Perplexity is partnering directly with global telecoms to capture hardware real estate that bypasses traditional app stores.

Still, we see major red flags ahead. Telco-branded hardware has a terrible historical track record, and asking consumers to leave polished flagship ecosystems for carrier-backed devices is a tall order. Even more challenging is the reality of AI agents operating in the wild: the moment third-party booking sites change their layouts or block bot actions, the dream of an autonomous phone can quickly stumble into an error screen.