In his 2015 book Water 4.0, David Sedlak highlights just how transformative piped water truly was. For centuries, people relied on carrying water from wells and rivers by hand. The introduction of plumbing changed everything—safe water became instantly available inside homes, reshaping public health, personal hygiene, and even the way buildings and cities were constructed. Over time, this breakthrough stopped feeling like technology at all. It simply became part of everyday life.
Sedlak argues that the next major leap in water systems won’t come solely from expanding centralized infrastructure. Instead, progress will come from blending large-scale systems with localized approaches—such as rainwater collection, community-level recycling, and local reuse. True resilience, he suggests, comes from spreading capability across the system so water can be directed where it’s needed most.
This idea closely mirrors what Lenovo Chairman and CEO Yuanqing Yang describes as hybrid AI: a model where public, personal, and enterprise AI work in concert. Each form serves different purposes and users, balancing efficiency, performance, responsiveness, privacy, security, and sustainability. Rather than competing, these layers of AI strengthen one another.
That vision defines how we see the future of AI—not confined to a single cloud platform or locked into one device, but intelligently distributed across the cloud, the edge, and every device you use. At times, AI operates locally for speed and privacy; at other times, it leverages the cloud for scale and reach. Like water, it should move effortlessly through your environment, becoming exactly what you need in each moment—unnoticed when unnecessary, essential when it matters.
The quiet constant: ambient intelligence
This is where ambient intelligence takes shape. Imagine AI that isn’t limited to an app or a single interface, but instead surrounds you seamlessly. It responds when you ask, anticipates when you don’t, and delivers insights precisely when they’re useful. It closes the gap between intention and action. This represents the next evolution of AI: a subtle, ever-present partner embedded throughout your digital life—always active, continuously learning, and ready when you need it.
Our approach centers on a single intelligence that works naturally across many devices. This personal intelligence moves fluidly between your PC, smartphone, tablet, and wearable, drawing context from each to evolve alongside you. It’s thoughtfully distributed across device, edge, and cloud—running locally when privacy and speed are critical, scaling to the cloud when greater power is required. Above all, it remains secure and firmly under your control.
Yuanqing Yang refers to this as the Personal AI twin: a digital counterpart that constantly learns to understand your habits, preferences, and needs. The same concept extends to organizations through the Enterprise AI twin, which is shaped by company data, policies, and objectives. Together, these twins make ambient intelligence both universally present and uniquely personal.
Trust and privacy are foundational to this vision. Security is not an afterthought—it is the mindset that underpins every Lenovo innovation. Ambient intelligence is built with that same commitment to protecting users and earning their confidence.
The five behaviors of ambient intelligence
When intelligence becomes part of daily life, it reveals itself in the moments that matter most.
The most effective technology doesn’t demand attention. Like water flowing through pipes, it adjusts instantly to your needs—steady, subtle, and essential. These are the moments when AI stops feeling like a tool and starts feeling like life itself: predicting needs before you ask, responding with awareness of context, translating intent into action, summarizing what you missed, and creating environments that let you fully focus on work, play, or creativity.
We’ve identified five defining patterns of this experience: proactive, reactive, interactive, retrospective, and immersive. Together, they mark the shift from AI as something you open to AI as something you live with.
Living with ambient intelligence
Your on-device AI is continuously active, often working quietly in the background. It may proactively surface your priorities or flag important tasks. On your commute, it might remind you of an upcoming call you haven’t confirmed—perhaps even preparing key talking points so you’re ready before the conversation begins.
Throughout the day, it responds instantly when you engage it. This reactive intelligence adapts to whatever is in front of you. Hover over an object on your screen or point your phone at something in the real world, and it delivers relevant information in context.
When it’s time to take action, the experience becomes interactive. Sharing drafts, coordinating with colleagues, setting reminders, or syncing updates across devices happens smoothly, without you needing to manage the process. Your intention flows directly into execution.
If you step away, the intelligence becomes retrospective. It summarizes unread messages, highlights key project changes, and even recaps portions of meetings you couldn’t attend in full—so you can rejoin your work informed and ready.
And when focus matters most, immersive intelligence takes over. Distractions fade, and your devices shift into a state designed for deep engagement. Whether you’re gaming, creating, or problem-solving, your environment supports flow, presence, and performance.
By day’s end, you’ve moved alongside an intelligence that adapts continuously, flowing across devices and contexts without interruption.
One AI, many devices: the Super Agent vision
This always-present AI future is closer than it appears. Today, foundations already exist through technologies like moto ai, Lenovo AI Now, and Smart Connect—where intelligence is embedded directly into devices, connected across platforms, and balanced between cloud and edge.
The next step is convergence. These capabilities come together into a unified intelligence layer that combines perception, action, and presence across devices. This aligns closely with Lenovo CTO Tolga Kurtoglu’s concept of the AI Super Agent—a cognitive operating system that coordinates multiple specialized AI agents.
For individuals, this means a single intelligence that understands your needs in context—what you require, when you require it, and where you are. It perceives, then acts on your behalf across devices, services, and the cloud. Equally important, it maintains a continuous presence through the five behavioral modes—becoming a virtual extension of yourself, learning your patterns, and adapting to your routines. Over time, it grows more personalized, evolving into a true Personal AI twin.
This is the opportunity AI presents: to move beyond being something you launch in an app and instead become something that flows through every moment of your life. It’s the transition from tools to presence.
As Bruce Lee famously said, “Be like water.” Water adapts, takes shape, and moves wherever it’s needed. That is how we believe AI should function—quiet when unnecessary, powerful when required, and always in service of the moment.
Sedlak argues that the next major leap in water systems won’t come solely from expanding centralized infrastructure. Instead, progress will come from blending large-scale systems with localized approaches—such as rainwater collection, community-level recycling, and local reuse. True resilience, he suggests, comes from spreading capability across the system so water can be directed where it’s needed most.
This idea closely mirrors what Lenovo Chairman and CEO Yuanqing Yang describes as hybrid AI: a model where public, personal, and enterprise AI work in concert. Each form serves different purposes and users, balancing efficiency, performance, responsiveness, privacy, security, and sustainability. Rather than competing, these layers of AI strengthen one another.
That vision defines how we see the future of AI—not confined to a single cloud platform or locked into one device, but intelligently distributed across the cloud, the edge, and every device you use. At times, AI operates locally for speed and privacy; at other times, it leverages the cloud for scale and reach. Like water, it should move effortlessly through your environment, becoming exactly what you need in each moment—unnoticed when unnecessary, essential when it matters.
The quiet constant: ambient intelligence
This is where ambient intelligence takes shape. Imagine AI that isn’t limited to an app or a single interface, but instead surrounds you seamlessly. It responds when you ask, anticipates when you don’t, and delivers insights precisely when they’re useful. It closes the gap between intention and action. This represents the next evolution of AI: a subtle, ever-present partner embedded throughout your digital life—always active, continuously learning, and ready when you need it.
Our approach centers on a single intelligence that works naturally across many devices. This personal intelligence moves fluidly between your PC, smartphone, tablet, and wearable, drawing context from each to evolve alongside you. It’s thoughtfully distributed across device, edge, and cloud—running locally when privacy and speed are critical, scaling to the cloud when greater power is required. Above all, it remains secure and firmly under your control.
Yuanqing Yang refers to this as the Personal AI twin: a digital counterpart that constantly learns to understand your habits, preferences, and needs. The same concept extends to organizations through the Enterprise AI twin, which is shaped by company data, policies, and objectives. Together, these twins make ambient intelligence both universally present and uniquely personal.
Trust and privacy are foundational to this vision. Security is not an afterthought—it is the mindset that underpins every Lenovo innovation. Ambient intelligence is built with that same commitment to protecting users and earning their confidence.
The five behaviors of ambient intelligence
When intelligence becomes part of daily life, it reveals itself in the moments that matter most.
The most effective technology doesn’t demand attention. Like water flowing through pipes, it adjusts instantly to your needs—steady, subtle, and essential. These are the moments when AI stops feeling like a tool and starts feeling like life itself: predicting needs before you ask, responding with awareness of context, translating intent into action, summarizing what you missed, and creating environments that let you fully focus on work, play, or creativity.
We’ve identified five defining patterns of this experience: proactive, reactive, interactive, retrospective, and immersive. Together, they mark the shift from AI as something you open to AI as something you live with.
Living with ambient intelligence
Your on-device AI is continuously active, often working quietly in the background. It may proactively surface your priorities or flag important tasks. On your commute, it might remind you of an upcoming call you haven’t confirmed—perhaps even preparing key talking points so you’re ready before the conversation begins.
Throughout the day, it responds instantly when you engage it. This reactive intelligence adapts to whatever is in front of you. Hover over an object on your screen or point your phone at something in the real world, and it delivers relevant information in context.
When it’s time to take action, the experience becomes interactive. Sharing drafts, coordinating with colleagues, setting reminders, or syncing updates across devices happens smoothly, without you needing to manage the process. Your intention flows directly into execution.
If you step away, the intelligence becomes retrospective. It summarizes unread messages, highlights key project changes, and even recaps portions of meetings you couldn’t attend in full—so you can rejoin your work informed and ready.
And when focus matters most, immersive intelligence takes over. Distractions fade, and your devices shift into a state designed for deep engagement. Whether you’re gaming, creating, or problem-solving, your environment supports flow, presence, and performance.
By day’s end, you’ve moved alongside an intelligence that adapts continuously, flowing across devices and contexts without interruption.
One AI, many devices: the Super Agent vision
This always-present AI future is closer than it appears. Today, foundations already exist through technologies like moto ai, Lenovo AI Now, and Smart Connect—where intelligence is embedded directly into devices, connected across platforms, and balanced between cloud and edge.
The next step is convergence. These capabilities come together into a unified intelligence layer that combines perception, action, and presence across devices. This aligns closely with Lenovo CTO Tolga Kurtoglu’s concept of the AI Super Agent—a cognitive operating system that coordinates multiple specialized AI agents.
For individuals, this means a single intelligence that understands your needs in context—what you require, when you require it, and where you are. It perceives, then acts on your behalf across devices, services, and the cloud. Equally important, it maintains a continuous presence through the five behavioral modes—becoming a virtual extension of yourself, learning your patterns, and adapting to your routines. Over time, it grows more personalized, evolving into a true Personal AI twin.
This is the opportunity AI presents: to move beyond being something you launch in an app and instead become something that flows through every moment of your life. It’s the transition from tools to presence.
As Bruce Lee famously said, “Be like water.” Water adapts, takes shape, and moves wherever it’s needed. That is how we believe AI should function—quiet when unnecessary, powerful when required, and always in service of the moment.