(Yicai) Oct. 23 -- Huawei Technologies has released HarmonyOS 6, its next-generation operating system with artificial intelligence features, and is rolling out more than 80 AI agents in the first wave, with Executive Director Richard Yu calling it a “new milestone” for the Chinese tech titan.

HarmonyOS 6 delivers a full upgrade to its app ecosystem and user experience, Yu, who also chairs Huawei’s consumer business group, said at yesterday’s launch event. The Shenzhen-based company will begin making a beta version available to the public across more than 90 device models, he added.

HarmonyOS 6 also has an AI agent development framework that enables developers to build agents capable of intelligent interaction, autonomous decision-making, and collaborative behaviour without needing to construct the underlying algorithms themselves, paving the way for the user interface to shift toward language interaction from the touch screen, according to Huawei.

The first batch of over 80 AI agents -- developed using the framework and covering education, medical care, entertainment, and life services -- are available through an integral marketplace. They can help users with various tasks such as ordering takeouts and booking air tickets.

Chinese e-commerce giant JD.Com, for instance, has developed an AI shopping assistant on HarmonyOS that can recommend products based on user needs, find promotions, and compare discount information.

Another new major feature of HarmonyOS 6 is cross-platform connectivity. For the first time the OS supports near-field communication data transfer with Apple devices, enabling data sharing without a network connection.

Huawei released HarmonyOS 5 last October, with the system installed on more than 23 million devices so far, according to Yu.

Last month, Huawei unveiled its Tiangong Plan at its developer conference Huawei Connect, pledging to invest more than CNY1 billion (USD140.3 million) and other resources to support the building of the HarmonyOS AI ecosystem. The firm will incubate more than 10,000 AI-native services, 1,000 intent frameworks, and 5,000 agents on the OS in the future.

Editors: Dou Shicong, Martin Kadiev