StepFun's STEPX Neo Named WAIC 2026 'Treasure of the Pavilion' as Agent Phone Vision Takes Shape

On July 17, the 2026 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) opened in Shanghai. StepFun's STEPX Neo stood out among AI innovations to claim the conference's top 'Treasure of the Pavilion' award. The large-model-native agent phone had just been unveiled four days earlier at StepFun's terminal brand and next-generation agent strategy launch event, alongside the STEPX brand and the Step AOS agent-native operating system.

StepFun chairman Yin Qi told media after the launch that the measure of a good agent phone is 'how little you need to look at it and interact with it to get things done' — a philosophy directly opposed to the smartphone industry's十几年 obsession with grabbing user attention. Yin suggested that future agent phones 'may no longer be phones at all.'

STEPX Neo's core capability comes from Step AOS. StepFun characterizes current AI phone bottlenecks as three walls: memory (can't remember you), decision-making (can't make judgment calls), and action (can't get things done). Step AOS does not replace the phone's original kernel but sits on top of it, building resource scheduling and interaction layers for agents from scratch, compatible with Android, Linux, and RTOS below.

At the WAIC booth, three identical STEPX Neo units were configured as different 'users' — running the same system and model but with personalized memories. StepFun's terminal president Ni Jiayue noted that internally, everyone's personal agent develops different intelligence levels based on usage habits: 'Memory isn't a factory setting; it's the result of a relationship.'

Step AOS uses a three-step memory pipeline — record, organize, recall — achieving recall in as fast as 15 milliseconds. It captures not just data but the reasoning behind each choice. Execution follows a cloud-edge architecture: instant tasks like setting alarms complete at the edge in milliseconds, complex planning goes to the cloud, and private data stays on-device.

On privacy, StepFun jointly released the 'Next-Generation Agent System Security White Paper' with Shanghai Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, proposing a framework of trustworthiness, visibility, controllability, and reversibility. In a live demo, asking Amoo to delete a photo triggered a confirmation dialog, with every action logged and reversible in the security center.

The 'Treasure of the Pavilion' recognition signals WAIC's endorsement of agent phones as a new product category. But as Yin Qi acknowledged, the real test comes after sustained use: whether the phone still remembers you, and whether you still trust it enough to remember more.