Jeffrey Liu explains how custom AI silicon, multilingual intelligence and ambient computing are transforming earbuds into intelligent personal assistants
Dubai — Artificial intelligence is rapidly reshaping consumer wearables, taking earbuds beyond music and calls into the realms of productivity, communication and real-time assistance. Anker Innovations is betting heavily on this shift with the soundcore Liberty 5 Pro and its proprietary THUS AI Chip, designed to bring greater intelligence directly onto the device.
In an interview with TahawulTech, Jeffrey Liu, General Manager, Anker Innovations Middle East & Africa, discusses why on-device AI is becoming critical for latency, privacy and power efficiency. Liu also examines the GCC’s growing appetite for multilingual intelligent audio, Anker’s investment in regional AI capabilities and a future where earbuds evolve from smartphone accessories into proactive, always-present personal assistants.
Interview Excerpts
What does the launch of the soundcore Liberty 5 Pro reveal about the growing role of on-device AI in the future of consumer wearables?
The Liberty 5 Pro marks the end of the earbud as a simple playback device. For years the industry competed on drivers, codecs, and decibels of ANC. Those still matter, but intelligence is now the differentiator.
With Liberty 5 Pro, we built our own silicon, the THUS™ AI Chip, which is the world’s first Compute-in-Memory audio chip for wearables. By integrating computation directly into memory, it eliminates the energy waste of traditional architectures and delivers 150 times more AI compute than our previous generation, running locally on an earbud battery. The earbud analyses your voice, environment, and hearing profile 384,000 times per second, adapting in real time. The implication is bigger than one product.
The wearable, always on, always in position, always sensing, is becoming the natural home for personal AI. Liberty 5 Pro is our opening statement in that shift.
Why did Anker choose to develop its own AI chipset, and what advantages does on-device AI offer over cloud-based processing?
Three reasons: latency, privacy, and power. Real-time voice isolation needs a sub-10-millisecond response. Cloud roundtrips kill that. On-device doesn’t. A device that transcribes meetings handles sensitive data. Our principle is “local by default, cloud by necessity.” The Liberty 5 Pro Max case stores up to 12 hours of recordings locally; no server ever touches the raw audio. Transcription and summarisation are then processed through the Soundcore app, powered by the THUS chip’s AI pipeline.
And the THUS chip’s Compute-in-Memory architecture consumes roughly 30% less power than our previous generation while delivering dramatically more compute. That efficiency is what makes continuous AI viable on an earbud.
We concluded you cannot build a truly differentiated AI experience on someone else’s general-purpose chip. Own the silicon, own the experience.
How are AI-powered earbuds evolving beyond entertainment to enhance productivity, communication and real-time multilingual experiences?
Three dimensions. Communication: Liberty 5 Pro earned a Guinness World Record, G-MOS 4.7, for speech quality, using a 10-sensor matrix of eight microphones and two bone conduction sensors fused by the THUS neural network. Take a call in a 90-decibel windstorm or a packed metro carriage; the other person hears studio-quality voice. In a region where business happens everywhere from construction sites to desert camps, that is transformative.
Productivity: the Pro Max case has its own microphone, a 1.78-inch AMOLED screen, and onboard storage for up to 12 hours of recordings. Meetings are transcribed and summarised through the Soundcore app, action items and key takeaways included.
Multilingual: the Anka assistant, built with Microsoft Azure, supports 100+ languages. But the GCC demands more. The region operates daily across English, Arabic dialects, Urdu, Tagalog, and Mandarin.
Real-time, dialect-aware interpretation is not a premium add-on here, it is the daily reality of doing business.
What trends are you seeing across the GCC that are driving demand for AI-enabled, multilingual and intelligent audio devices?
The GCC is becoming a lead indicator, not a fast follower. First, demographics: a young, affluent, digitally native population that treats technology as identity, not utility. They expect intelligence and quality simultaneously.
Second, multilingual pressure is daily friction here. A Dubai business day can span English, Arabic dialects, Mandarin, Urdu, and Tagalog. Consumers will pay to remove that friction, but generic translation isn’t enough. The AI must understand Khaleeji, Levantine, and Egyptian Arabic, which requires deliberate regional NLP investment.
Third, government vision- Saudi Vision 2030, UAE Digital Strategy- creates an environment where AI-enabled services are the baseline expectation. Fourth, climate drives form factor.
Open-ear designs and audio-enabled smart glasses are gaining traction because they suit an outdoor, active Gulf lifestyle.
Looking ahead, how do you see smart earbuds and AI wearables evolving into intelligent personal assistants over the next five years?
Three phases. First, now is “Hardware AI”: the THUS chip brings local intelligence to the earbud. It’s a context-aware computer, but still a phone peripheral.
Second, 2027 to 2028 is “Cross-Brand AI.” The THUS architecture extends beyond audio. Your earbuds detect stress through vocal patterns and heart rate. VibeOS, our cross-device platform, responds, dims the eufy lights, queues calming audio, pauses notifications. The assistant becomes proactive.
Third, 2029 and beyond is “Ambient AI.” Face-to-face simultaneous interpretation is standard across every tier. The assistant understands not just words but intent, emotion, unspoken preference. The device fades into the background; what remains is intelligence, present, invisible, always on.
The earbud is not the endpoint. It’s the entry point. The destination is a personal AI that lives with you, learns from you, and works for you, without you ever reaching for your phone. Liberty 5 Pro is step one.
