Honor’s Alpha Plan is a bold AI strategy that might just pay off

Under the leadership of its new CEO, James Li, Honor is reorienting itself in a bold AI-driven direction. The Honor Alpha Plan, as the company calls it, is a strategy designed to catapult the phone maker to the forefront of AI innovation. Honor has announced plans to invest ten billion dollars over five years in researching and developing AI technologies, with a focus on open collaboration and ecosystem creation.

“This transformation marks HONOR’s shift from a smartphone manufacturer to an AI Device Ecosystem company, backed by a $10 billion investment over five years. At the core of this strategy is a renewed focus on open collaboration, working closely with industry leaders like Google and Qualcomm to co-create the future of AI-powered devices,” says Honor in a press release.

Honor is conceiving of its Alpha Plan within the context of two major phases. These include ‘building an intelligent phone’, as well as ‘co-creating an intelligent ecosystem.’ The company describes the Alpha Plan as analogous to a tree — partners like Google and Qualcomm provide the foundational AI technologies, working as the root of the operation. Honor, meanwhile, acts as the bridge or ‘tree trunk’ of hardware and AI innovations, with the hope of AI-powered apps and services eventually sprouting into a full-fledged forest.

Honor is bullish on AI, and its Alpha Plan is a signal of intent

Honor is investing 10 billion dollars into AI over the next 5 years

Just about every consumer electronics brand is drumming up hype for AI systems and innovations in 2025, to mixed success. Honor’s 10 billion dollar investment is a major signal of intent, and it’s clear that the company wants to be taken seriously when it comes to AI technologies.

Honor has been at the relative forefront of AI development with its unique AI Deepfake Detection on the Magic 7 Pro handset, which was released earlier this year. The company has announced the rebranding of its AI imaging tech under the new ‘AIMAGE’ banner, too, with plans to release a new image upscaler tool for the Magic 7 Pro sometime in March.

I’m personally intrigued by Honor’s new AI Connect feature, which the company describes as being the “world’s first all-ecosystem file-sharing technology, enabling ultra-fast transfers between iOS and Android.” The tool looks to bring AirDrop-style wireless connectivity a cross-platform experience, with AI backing the operation under the hood.

Of course, funding research and development — even with an investment as big as 10 billion dollars — isn’t an absolute guarantee of success in the AI space. We’ll have to wait and see whether Honor’s Alpha Plan ambitions ultimately pan out, and whether the company will be able to innovate and push the market forward.

Honor also announced a number of new hardware products at its Alpha Plan keynote event, including the Earbuds Open, the Watch 5 Ultra, the Pad V9, and the MagicBook Pro 14. Additionally, the company is committing to a seven-year Android OS update policy for its flagship Magic smartphones going forward, starting with its popular Magic 7 Pro and Magic V3 devices.

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With its new update policy, Honor joins the ranks of Google and Samsung

Honor has pledged to support its flagship phones with 7 years of Android OS updates, matching high-end Google Pixel and Samsung Galaxy handsets.