The German operator's upcoming AI Phone takes center stage, with Perplexity providing the cherry on top.
It's not easy to find a Black Forest gateau in Barcelona, it seems, although Deutsche Telekom's head of technology and innovation, Claudia Nemat, was able to secure one in time for the operator's press conference at Mobile World Congress (MWC) this week.
Nemat was keen to get her hands on this chocolate, cream and cherry confection to celebrate DT's collaboration with, you've guessed it, Black Forest Labs, a generative AI startup that was launched in 2024 with a focus on the development of deep learning models for media such as images and videos.
In February, DT announced it was collaborating with Black Forest Labs on the development of a DT-specific model for generating photorealistic images based on the startup's Flux Pro image generator. The aim is to use the created images in marketing, for example, meaning that accuracy and consistency are paramount.
Meanwhile, Nemat formed something of a double act with Andreas Blattmann, co-founder of Black Forest Labs, to drive home the message that more AI development is needed in Europe to keep up with competition from China and the US.
"We believe in technological sovereignty," she declared. "We work with the best partners around the world, we are a cross-Atlantic telco, but we also love technology 'made in Germany,' AI 'made in Germany.' And therefore, I'm so excited to work with a Germany-based unicorn."
Blattmann added: "We crucially need companies out of Europe that build AI foundation models like we do … if you want to get independent, you really need to make sure we have this kind of infrastructure provider, also in Europe."
DT's AI Phone takes shape
Nemat served up a number of AI announcements at MWC, including the evolution of DT's AI Phone with personal assistant, the concept for which was first unveiled at the event in 2024.
Based on DT's existing T Phone, the new AI device is now taking on a more tangible form and is expected to be available in the second half of the year. Partners include Perplexity AI, the basis of the phone's personal assistant, as well as Google Cloud AI, ElevenLabs and Picsart.
Nemat claimed that the device "will be affordable" with a price below $1,000, although she did not want to get into pricing details at this stage.
For those customers that do not wish to buy a new smartphone, DT is bundling "selected AI offerings" from partners in the MeinMagenta app. Perplexity's answer engine is already available in the app, and further applications will be added from the summer.
Other announcements include what DT is calling the "latest generation of digital decoy traps," or so-called "honeypots" that have been enhanced with AI. These honeypots are designed to lure in unsuspecting hackers in order to gain data about their tactics and tools.
In addition, DT and Google Cloud announced they are working together on the development of a "RAN Guardian Agent," a multi-agentic AI assistant built using Gemini 2.0. It is designed to analyze network behavior in real time, detect anomalies and perform self-healing measures as needed to optimize network performance.
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