Exclusive: How Qualcomm Is Transforming India's Retail Landscape With AI, IoT

Arthur Miller has witnessed the ebb and flow of technological revolutions during his nearly three-decade (28 years) tenure at the company. Now, he's orchestrating a transformation that could redefine how Indians shop, pay, and interact in retail spaces. With India's burgeoning digital ecosystem, the country is set to be the focal point of this quiet revolution.

"Qualcomm has been doing AI since before it was kind of a buzzword," Miller, Qualcomm’s Vice President of Business Development and Head of Global Retail IoT remarks in an exclusive interview with BW Businessworld, where he highlights the company's long-standing engagement with artificial intelligence. From pioneering always-on wake words to integrating autofocus in smartphones, Qualcomm's contributions have often operated behind the scenes. Now, those technologies are stepping into the limelight, aiming to solve some of India's most pressing retail challenges.

India's Digital Leap and Qualcomm's Entry

India presents a unique landscape for these technologies. With its rapid digitalisation, propelled by initiatives like UPI (Unified Payments Interface) and a young, tech-savvy population, the country is fertile ground for Qualcomm's retail innovations.

"Digital payments are great. Cash is going away. We all understand that," Miller observes. "But how do we continue to evolve that? So it's the experience we as consumers expect."

Qualcomm is actively engaging with Indian stakeholders, from device manufacturers to banks and regulators. The aim is not just to import solutions but to adapt and co-create technologies that resonate with local needs.

"We're here this entire week to talk to people who influence payments, people who make payment stuff, and people who are in the payment space," Miller shares. "We're talking to people who influence the standards just like we did in other regions."

One of the key objectives is to enhance the user experience and reduce fraud in digital payments. While QR codes and mobile payments have become ubiquitous in India, they are not without challenges.

"I can't explain how many times over the past week that people have gone outside to try to get coverage so they can pay, or the thing just spins, and I don't know if it's accepting my card or not," he notes. 

“For you as a consumer, it'd probably be much better to stay on your phone call and show your palm to a vendor, have a sound box say you paid, instead of how things happen.”

Manufacturing and Innovation on Indian Soil

Qualcomm's commitment to India extends beyond market entry; it includes fostering local manufacturing and innovation. With thousands of engineers already based in India, the company sees an opportunity to reduce dependency on imported devices and stimulate the local economy.

"Why not have the device made in India?" Miller posits. "Why not have some ODMs here also that enable those guys? I would love nothing more than to say that the solution is not just the software done here, but we actually manufacture devices."

Local manufacturing could drive down costs, making advanced technologies more accessible to smaller retailers and consumers alike.

"We think it will help in terms of cost-effectiveness of some of these devices," he adds. "We're looking at device manufacturers. How do we reduce the dependency on imported devices for a very specific India application?"

By collaborating with local Original Design Manufacturers (ODMs) and Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs), Qualcomm aims to create an ecosystem that benefits all stakeholders.

"It's very hard for OEMs or ODMs that are outside of India to be relevant inside of India," Miller explains. "So we're also looking at not how do we influence or change behaviour or enhance experience, but how can we also make this ecosystem a little more circular? Because we're here—all the OEMs are all here."

PayTM and PhonePe, already using Qualcomm-powered POS machines manufactured by ODMs in China, are propelling digital transactions in the country. Qualcomm now believes that manufacturing these devices in India will pave the way for the next stage.

Leveraging Smartphone Innovations for Retail Transformation

Central to Qualcomm's strategy is repurposing its advanced smartphone technologies for retail applications in India. The company's extensive experience and investment in mobile chip development serve as a foundation for its retail IoT solutions.

"IoT, we benefit from everything our mobile team does," Miller explains. "Our mobile team spends billions of dollars creating new chips per year, so I can spend tens of millions to bring them into other applications."

This symbiotic relationship allows Qualcomm to bring high-end capabilities to the Indian retail sector without the prohibitive costs typically associated with such technology.

"I gladly take whatever they have and then repurpose it," he says. "Now, sometimes in the industrial space—the mobile team needs to survive for two-year cycles, right? I need to survive seven to ten-year cycles. So we extend the software life."

By adapting mobile chips for longer life cycles and different use cases, Qualcomm ensures that the hardware and software remain relevant and reliable for retail applications in India.

"We don't use every mobile chip," Miller notes. "A lot of times we'll bring in a mobile chip, re-market it, potentially do different characterisation, but the hardware's similar, and the software's similar."

For instance, some of the devices utilise an outdated Snapdragon 660 chipset. This chipset first appeared in devices like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 7S in 2019. Miller’s team has successfully repurposed it for retail IoT devices, ensuring its relevance in a different market. By doing so, they’ve made this chip, which is considered outdated by modern smartphone standards, more viable. Additionally, these chips enable Qualcomm to create customised solutions for its clients, utilising either Windows or Android operating systems. 

The Palm Recognition POS Gateway: A Secure and Seamless Future for India

One of the most groundbreaking innovations Qualcomm is bringing to the Indian retail market is the palm recognition Point-of-Sale (POS) gateway. By leveraging biometric technology, these gateways offer a secure, contactless, and frictionless payment experience tailored for Indian consumers.

"We believe, originally it was a credit card, and now it's migrated to your phone with QR code," Miller observes. "Why not eventually get to, I don't even need to pull out my phone? Just put your palm, use your face, do something else, and we can understand what their issues are."

Palm recognition technology offers several advantages over other biometric modalities like facial recognition, especially in the Indian context.

"People are worried about face. We don't care which modality wins; we're doing a lot of stuff to secure that. But in that demo, we had you use your palm," he explains. "Palm becomes intentional; people are less worried about it. There's probably not so many pictures of your palm on the internet. There's probably lots of pictures of your face."

The intentionality of using one's palm addresses privacy concerns and aligns with regulatory requirements in India.

"It's intentional, so it makes a lot—back to the regulators—you go to Europe and others, it needs to be intentional, right? GDPR compliance, the first thing is it needs to be intent," Miller adds.

In practical terms, an authorised user simply scans their palm at the POS gateway, which then pre-authorises the transaction. This action unlocks devices like AI-powered coolers or completes purchases without the need for cards, phones, or cash.

"We allowed an authorised user, using their palm, to pre-authorise the transaction, then it would unlock the cooler, you'd open up the cooler, grab whatever items you want, close it, and it would close the transaction," he describes. “Never using your credit card, never using a QR code, never using your phone.”

Ensuring Security Through Edge Computing

Security is paramount when dealing with biometric data, and Qualcomm utilises its expertise in smartphone technology to ensure robust protection, crucial for gaining trust in the Indian market.

"So what we do as Qualcomm, we're not going to make the module for the camera module or anything else. What we will do is understand the different camera modules and the security behind those," Miller explains.

Qualcomm's approach involves secure template creation and edge processing.

"We will capture the image. We will then take that image into our secure execution environment, do the template generation and everything else, and then secure that and send that template off," he says. "A lot of the solutions that are there today, they're not securing certain parts of the transaction."

By processing biometric data on-device, Qualcomm minimises the risk of data interception and misuse, a concern particularly relevant in India.

"There's no reason I should be sending something to the cloud when I can create a template and send a template to the cloud instead of an image," Miller asserts. "We like to look at how do we take advantage of the secure assets on the device, plus all of our normal CV capabilities, and create secure video pipelines and secure ISP."

This edge computing approach not only enhances security but also improves transaction speed and reliability, essential for a seamless customer experience in India's fast-paced retail environments.

The Retail Conundrum

Retail remains a colossal industry, with brick-and-mortar sales projected to hit $20 trillion globally in 2023. In the United States alone, food and grocery retail accounts for approximately $1 trillion annually. Yet, this massive sector grapples with persistent issues: labour shortages, inventory inaccuracies, and evolving consumer expectations.

"Labour shortages in the U.S. specifically, and Europe—labour is very expensive if you can find it," Miller notes. The pandemic has exacerbated these challenges, making it difficult for retailers to maintain operational efficiency. Inventory accuracy emerges as another critical concern, especially with the rise of online ordering and in-store pickups. "If it's not in the store, it's a problem, especially if they think it's in there," he adds.

Inflation and regulatory changes further complicate the landscape, pressuring retailers to innovate or risk obsolescence. Miller emphasises that technology must address at least one of three core problems to be viable: enhancing customer experience, improving associate productivity, or boosting operational efficiencies. "No matter how cool the tech is, no one will ever pay for it if you're not solving one of these three problems," he asserts.

Qualcomm's Technological Arsenal

To tackle these issues, Qualcomm leverages its vast technological portfolio, developed over years of innovation in mobile and IoT sectors. The company's approach involves indirect relationships with card networks, banks, retailers, and other stakeholders to deeply understand their problem statements. "We just want to know what the problem statement is," Miller says. "We then use our technology with our direct relationships to our OEMs, SIs, and ISVs, and then our ODMs enable a lot of those folks to deliver the solution to the problem."

One of the standout solutions is the integration of on-device AI. Unlike traditional cloud-based systems, on-device AI offers immediacy and cost-effectiveness, crucial for retailers looking to scale without incurring prohibitive expenses. At the National Retail Federation (NRF) show in New York City earlier this year, Qualcomm showcased technologies that were not just futuristic concepts but commercially available solutions.

"Everyone was talking about Gen AI this January. Everyone said they had on-device AI. We were the only ones really doing it," Miller recalls. Demonstrations included natural language interactions running entirely on-device, even in airplane mode, ensuring seamless customer experiences without reliance on cloud connectivity.

The AI-Powered Retail Experience

A prime example of Qualcomm's innovation is the AI-powered cooler, an evolution of the traditional convenience store fridge. By integrating cameras and biometric access, the cooler can recognise authorised users, track inventory in real time, and process transactions without any physical interaction beyond a simple palm scan.

"We took an existing cooler, like you would walk up to in a convenience store, open it up and grab maybe a soda," Miller explains. "We added biometrics access to it. So we added a terminal, a payment terminal basically. Now you can either put your credit card in or your UPI, but what we think is going to be winning longer term is biometrics."

The potential applications extend beyond convenience stores. Imagine airport kiosks where travellers can quickly grab essentials without fumbling with cash or cards, or petrol stations where drivers can purchase items while refuelling without entering a store.

POS Transactions from Within the Car: The Future of Automotive Retail

Qualcomm is also extending its retail innovations into the automotive sector, enabling Point-of-Sale transactions directly from within the car. By integrating their advanced chips into vehicle systems, Qualcomm is turning cars into digital wallets capable of secure, seamless transactions.

"Start thinking about your car as your wallet," Miller suggests. "Instead of your wallet or your phone, you pull up to something, and your car can transact on your behalf."

This technology utilises Qualcomm's chips to facilitate secure payments at petrol stations, drive-through restaurants, and parking facilities without the driver ever needing to reach for a phone or wallet. "There's no reason that when you get near something, that menu couldn't transfer to your car," he explains. "You could order in the car, and then that payment could transfer without you ever doing anything."

By embedding POS capabilities within the car's system, Qualcomm is not only enhancing convenience but also addressing safety concerns by reducing the need for physical interaction during transactions. "We're enabling the framework," Miller emphasises. "Some of the things that we developed on the payment side, we've demoed at CES in the auto side."

This innovation is particularly relevant as vehicles become increasingly connected and autonomous. The integration of POS systems aligns with the broader trend of smart cars becoming extensions of personal technology ecosystems. "We have completely autonomous robots... So I think that full automation of the movement of inventory will eventually happen, and I think that'll be relevant," Miller notes.

The Road Ahead: From Edge AI to Autonomous Transactions

Qualcomm is exploring edge computing solutions that make 'dumb' devices smart by connecting them to AI-enabled hubs—a strategy particularly beneficial for Indian retailers who may have budget constraints.

"We see this as a way to not just address a use case for a consumer, but then to become this smart hub, or this edge AI box in physical space that can change your entire experience," Miller explains.

Future prospects include further integration of retail experiences with automotive technology, IoT devices, and AI-driven analytics.

"Experience is changing," Miller reflects. “We're focusing on experience. What can we do? How can we do that securely? I think getting some analytics around shopper behaviour and queue management... It's the experience we as consumers expect.”

Navigating Challenges and Embracing Collaboration in India

Implementing these technologies is not without challenges. Regulatory hurdles, especially concerning biometrics and data security, require careful navigation in India. Qualcomm is proactively engaging with regulators and standards bodies to ensure compliance and foster innovation.

"It doesn't matter if we have a great idea with the device manufacturer, but then the regulators and banks and people influencing standards don't allow that to happen," Miller acknowledges. "So we're meeting with device manufacturers, we're meeting with banks, we're meeting with the people who influence the standards."

Collaboration remains at the heart of Qualcomm's strategy in India. By working closely with partners across the ecosystem—OEMs, ODMs, retailers, banks, and regulators—the company aims to deliver solutions that are not only technologically advanced but also practical and scalable for the Indian market.