What comes after the smartphone? Amazon's Panos Panay will make his case at TechCrunch Disrupt 2026  | TechCrunch

Amazon's Senior Vice President of Devices and Services, Panos Panay, has been announced as a featured speaker for the upcoming TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 conference in San Francisco.

Panay, a veteran hardware executive who spent nearly two decades at Microsoft directing the creation of its Surface product line and the Windows 11 operating system, will deliver a presentation outlining his vision for the next generation of consumer electronics. His discussion will address how the technology sector is transitioning away from traditional, screen-centric mobile form factors toward interactive systems where artificial intelligence is natively integrated directly into the physical device hardware.\n\nSince taking over Amazon's consumer devices division from its former leader, Panay has focused heavily on updating the company's voice assistant technology with generative artificial intelligence, culminating in the recent rollout of the multi-tiered Alexa+ service. During the event, he is expected to share exclusive strategic insights into Amazon's roadmap, discussing how daily human routines might shift away from mobile phones and toward ambient assistant platforms, wearable smart glasses, and other emerging hardware form factors. The conference aims to provide founders, investors, and startup communities with foresight into these shifting technological paradigms so they can better position their businesses for the future.