AI Smartphones in 2024: Reality or Mere Mirage?

AI in our smartphones promises incredible advances, yet there's often a gap between marketing hype and actual utility, leaving many users still unconvinced of its real-world applications.

The Myth of AI in Our Smartphones

After covering most major US phone launches last year, I can definitively say: the Artificial Intelligence (AI) we envisioned hasn’t quite arrived in our smartphones. Yet, each announcement seemed to declare the opposite, heralding the dawn of smart phones and boosting stock prices enthusiastically.

Theory vs. Practice

In theory, our conventional smartphones are supposed to evolve into a new breed: AI smartphones. These devices promise optimized voice interaction with AI for tasks ranging from ordering a pizza to sending an email. We are told of an AI that can manage our calendars by scanning a flyer or find specific information in our emails or text messages.

All this sounds great, doesn’t it? However, “despite all these promises, AI smartphones are currently not living up to expectations”. At best, we have a mismatched collection of tech demos, far from the transformative promise.

What about the Industry Giants?

Major mobile companies are not exempt from this reality. Take Samsung, for instance, which started the year with the launch of the Galaxy S24 in January, loudly proclaiming: “Galaxy AI is here”. Indeed, the devices are good smartphones, but I wouldn’t yet call them AI smartphones.

At Google, a lot has been said about AI on its phones for years, with the company’s Gemini AI being ubiquitous on the Pixel 9 series. While features like the screenshot app seem useful, especially in photography, these functions, isolated in their respective apps, fail to convince us of their real contribution to the AI experience.

Apple has also joined in, offering iPhones built for “Apple Intelligence” in September. However, it wasn’t until the iOS 18.1 update in October that AI features were finally rolled out.

Where Do We Stand Now?

This year seems marked by some confusion about AI on our mobile phones. Promises of revolutionary AI based on the context of our mobile devices are starting to sound like cries in the wilderness. Smartphones genuinely optimized for AI need to quickly demonstrate their value through practical uses, especially as AI giants have already developed their applications with great efficiency, even enticing publishers to increasingly integrate them. We’ll keep a close eye on this (R)evolution in 2025 🙂