By Mark Bergen

The new Nokia 3310. Photographer: Luke MacGregor/Bloomberg

I’m writing from Barcelona, where it’s Carnival season, sunny and cool — and where thousands of people are, like me, cooped up all day inside a sprawling convention center for Mobile World Congress.

For a show about mobile phones, this year’s event was noticeably devoid of a show-stopper. The most buzzed-about device, arguably, was the Nokia 3310, a retro “dumb” phone resurrected by new parent HMD Global. Others — like LG, Huawei and Sony — unmasked new devices, but they didn’t produce much chatter. The word people keep using here about smartphones is “commoditized” — as in, the specs and pizzazz don’t matter anymore. Samsung, the largest Android handset maker, still reeling from its Note 7 and executive traumas, didn’t even put out a new phone.

“The past six months have undoubtedly been one of the most challenging periods in our history,” Samsung’s European CMO said on stage.

But Hiroshi Lockheimer, a spry, energetic Google veteran who runs Android (and one of CEO Sundar Pichai’s trusted deputies), was relentlessly positive as he walked the showroom floor with me and another reporter on Tuesday. “That’s kind of cool!” he exclaimed when he saw the newest phones from Huawei. When Richard Yu, Huawei’s consumer group CEO, pulled out another from his jacket, Lockheimer said it again: “That’s a cool cover!”

Lockheimer has some reasons to be sunny. Android phone makers are still struggling with ever-thinning margins and ever-increasing competitors. But Google has slowly managed to move the software in some of the direction it wants, particularly on security. Arto Nummela, CEO of HMD, the company trying to revive Nokia phones, said that he promised Google that they would update their phones’ security monthly. Lockheimer said other manufacturers are doing the same.

His 20-minute jaunt through the floor reveals how deep and wide Google’s tentacles go. We bumped into Carl Pei, co-founder of China’s upstart OnePlus; then a cheery hello with Intel president Murthy Renduchintala. Lockheimer told both that he’ll see them later.

Two themes dominated the show: the coming internet steroid of 5G wireless networks, and artificial intelligence services. In many ways, Google’s better positioned than many of its partners in Barcelona to reap those rewards. Side effects of 5G, like better connections for driverless cars and virtual reality devices, will help Google. Even more so on AI.

Masayoshi Son delivers a keynote speech on the opening day of the Mobile World Congress 2017. Photographer: Pau Barrena/Bloomberg

Softbank’s Masayoshi Son gave AI front billing during his keynote. But besides Son, the conference was devoid of headliners. Lockheimer’s boss, Pichai, came but didn’t speak; nor did Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg.

O nce obsessed with “mobile-first,” both CEOs are now obsessed with building out AI capabilities across their companies.

One industry executive gave me a succinct explanation for their absence here: They don’t need the carriers to do AI.

They needed them before, though. As we wrapped up the tour, Lockheimer got nostalgic. He said that before the conference began, he surveyed the bustling construction inside the convention center and pondered his 10 years working on the mobile operating system. “Android and its partners really changed an industry,” he said. “That’s kind of corny.”