Q/A with Neeraj Pramodkumar on Wear Elite and smart wearables

Wearables have moved beyond single purpose devices to multifunctioning, intelligent platforms, according to Neeraj Pramodkumar, Senior Product Manager at Qualcomm.  Fierce had a chance to catch up with him prior to his technical session at Sensors Converge 2026 in May for more insight.

Fierce: Your technical session topic at Sensors Converge is “Intelligent Wearables: The convergence of sensors, Edge AI, and connectivity.” What is the essence of what you’ll be covering?

Pramodkumar: We are at an inflection point for wearables. They are evolving from tracking devices and notification tools to Intelligent Wearables capable of contextual awareness, anticipating user needs, and operating autonomously. 

This transformation has been largely driven by continuous advancements in sensor technology, edge computing, AI, and connectivity. As a result, Intelligent Wearables are increasingly positioned to provide sophisticated and personalized experiences across health and wellness, productivity, and safety. During my session, I will discuss the current landscape of Intelligent Wearables, the technologies that make them possible, and their applications, referencing the recently announced Snapdragon Wear Elite platform.

Fierce: Intelligent wearables are definitely proliferating! What are a couple other examples of your favorites and what do they do for users?

Pramodkumar: Two representative examples spanning both mainstream and emerging form factors illustrate where Intelligent Wearables are headed. Google Pixel Watch 4 demonstrates how far the smartwatch has come as a real-time health and safety companion: it pairs rich sensing with emergency satellite SOS (NB-NTN), so users can still reach help when they’re outside terrestrial coverage. 

At the other end of the spectrum, Looki L1 represents an emerging class of ‘Personal AI’ wearables that focuses on lifelogging and AI-powered recall, helping users revisit key moments and extract insights from their day without needing to actively curate everything. What’s exciting is that both categories benefit from the same foundations of high-performance and low-power Edge compute/AI, sensors, and connectivity, delivered through Snapdragon Wear platforms.

Fierce: For the Snapdragon Wear Elite platform; what else does it offer to enable Personal AI experiences on Wearables?

Pramodkumar: Snapdragon Wear Elite is the industry’s first wearable platform featuring a dedicated Qualcomm Hexagon™ NPU, enabling powerful on-device AI and supporting up to 2 billion parameter models. This enables wearables to deliver faster, more responsive, and more private experiences, while still benefiting from cloud processing when appropriate. Snapdragon Wear Elite also introduces a first-of-its-kind hexa-connectivity architecture integrating six wireless technologies for reliable, always available experiences in real-world conditions. Together, these capabilities enable a new class of Personal AI experiences such as context-aware recommendations and natural voice interactions, while keeping sensitive data closer to the user.

Fierce: Looking ahead, what applications of Intelligent Wearables excite you most? 

Pramodkumar: Looking forward, the most impactful applications are expected to integrate and analyze contextual data from one or more intelligent wearable devices using on-device AI, enabling agentic experiences in areas such as health, wellness, safety, and productivity. In healthcare and other regulated enterprise settings, intelligent wearables can enable fast, privacy-preserving workflows such as secure transcription and summarization during clinician–patient conversations so sensitive data can be processed closer to the user. For consumers, the same foundations unlock proactive wellness, real-time assistance like on-device translation, and safety experiences that remain available even when connectivity is limited. Snapdragon Wear Elite is uniquely designed to bring together on-device AI, sensor fusion, and advanced connectivity so these experiences can be timely, useful, and increasingly personalized without requiring every interaction to depend on the cloud.

Neeraj Pramodkumar is a Senior Product Manager at Qualcomm driving AI and ecosystem partnerships for Snapdragon Wearables platforms—defining the future of intelligent wearable devices. With over a decade of experience spanning embedded software development, AI/ML program and product management, he has led initiatives impacting over 1 billion connected devices globally. His Sensors Converge technical session begins at 11:30 a.m. Wednesday, May 6, at the Santa Clara Convention Center. Further information and registration is online.