The Mobile World Congress will open its doors this Monday for the seventeenth time in Barcelona in an edition marked, as it could not be otherwise, by fashionable technology: artificial intelligence.

The fair has been separating itself from its genesis, focused on mobile phones, for years, and has already shown its adaptability to take advantage of the popularity of the technology of the moment, as it did in 2022 with the metaverse.

With brands choosing to hold their own events to present their flagship phones, guaranteeing themselves more attention, the GSMA, the organizer of the fair, knew how to pivot to give more weight to business and debates about the industry, without giving up eye-catching advances aimed at to succeed on social networks or television, and capture a broader spectrum of the technology sector.

Thus, 44% of the 95,000 visitors expected – 8% more than in 2023 – will not belong to the mobile industry in an edition that will maintain institutional peace after the renewal of the event until 2030.

Although one of the first tables of the event starts with the provocative name: Is generative AI overrated?, the other twenty tables on the same topic that will take place only during the opening day make it clear that in the digital industry, they have Of course this boom is not a bubble.

“There is a notable increase in space and resources allocated to this technology. MWC 2024 is emerging as a key platform to understand and experience the future of AI in various sectors,” highlights Ignacio Isasa, EY Technology Consulting partner, who highlights the presence of companies such as Nvidia.

The panel of speakers includes top-level figures such as the founder of Dell, Michael Dell, the president of Microsoft, Brad Smith, after announcing the largest investment in the history of the technology company in Spain, and Demis Hassabis, co-founder of Google Deepmind. , the AI area. To this, the leaders of the large operators will be added with José María Álvarez-Pallete, president of GSMA, leading the opening of the event and the traditional visit of Felipe VI.

For the telecommunications sector, the key will be to give new impetus to Open Gateway, the largest joint innovation in the sector since roaming, which seeks to open operator networks to the developer ecosystem. “This standardized approach is enormously beneficial for the sector, as it creates new monetization opportunities,” says César Cid, head of Accenture's Communications, Media and Technology industry in Spain and Portugal.

However, the great battle of the sector is being fought in a European key and aims to influence future EU legislation to allow large operators to merge.. For this reason, on Monday Álvarez-Pallete himself, the CEOs of Vodafone and Orange, Margherita Della Valle and Christel Heydemann, and Tim Hoettges, CEO of Deutsche Telekom, the largest European operator, will coincide on stage.. The end? Putting these claims back on the table a few hours after Thierry Breton, European Commissioner for the Internal Market and the sector's great ally in Brussels, presents the recent European white paper that should set community policies in the next European Commission on them. boards.

The document, widely anticipated, has been received in a bittersweet way by the sector. The Brussels diagnosis coincides with the ideas of the large operators, but the steps to improve the situation of the 'telecos' are far from what the most optimistic voices expected.

The most striking

While these debates are taking place, there are several exhibitors called to capture the flashes and the interest of the majority of the public.. Among all of them, the Alef Aeronautics flying car prototype has bought the most tickets to be the great attraction of the fair.

In the shortlist, there is also the curious bet of Deutsche Telekom: an electronic device with AI that is committed to 'retiring' applications and mobile phones and offering functions such as playing music, maps or browsing the Internet through an artificial intelligence interface in a concept similar to the Rabbit R1 that swept the CES.

The giant Huawei stand, the new Xiaomi terminals, which would be accompanied by the brand's first car, and Honor and old acquaintances such as holograms and the always omnipresent at these events Spot, the Boston Dynamics robot dog that continues to make exclamations five years after its presentation.