AI in smartphones: Can it go beyond 'gimmicks' and become really useful in 2025?

AI in smartphones

Let's be real, AI in our smartphones hasn’t really been a game changer. Sure, we’ve gone beyond "smart" assistants that mostly fumble orders, blurry background effects, and those weird AI-powered filters. But AI is still not something that most people turn to on their phones.

2024 was a year when smartphone makers tom-tomed AI features like never before. From what we have seen, the potential is definitely there.

Google's "Circle to Search" is a start – it's basically AI-powered image recognition that lets you search for things you see in the real world. But is it really something that will be used dedicatedly? Once in a while, perhaps, yes it can be useful. But can you live without it? Certainly.

Late to the party but Apple introduced "Apple Intelligence," a more integrated AI system that could power everything from smarter Siri to writing tools. Again, I have used Siri in its latest avatar quite a bit. Not that I am dependent on it but just to experience what the fuss is all about. The new light show is good but beyond that Siri has only gone from being an ‘average’ student to an ‘above average’ one. No great shakes, frankly. But it’s still early days.

Samsung made a big splash about Galaxy AI throughout the year. First with its S-series of phones and then the foldable phones. There are a bunch of AI features in the camera app. You can turn your images into portraits, fun sketches and so on. But the novelty wears off pretty soon and then they are just features that no one really cares about.

Brands like Oppo, OnePlus, Vivo, Xiaomi — all entered the AI fray with similar features. There’s Magic Eraser, there’s AI summaries, and whatnot. But are they really making a difference? Not so much.

The one AI feature that is really helpful is the translation feature. In fact, translation is one area where AI can be really good on smartphones. Apple’s integration of ChatGPT is also something which I found to be quite helpful as it doesn’t make me go into a separate app.

Do people really want AI in their phones?

For AI to really become useful in smartphones, developers need to pick the baton passed by the likes of Apple, Google, and Samsung. As clearly there seems to be awareness and demand.

Counterpoint Research conducted a survey in September 2024 aimed to evaluate public awareness and perceptions of Generative AI (Gen AI), focusing on its impact, benefits, concerns, and influence on future smartphone purchase decisions. The survey was done in seven countries — India was not a part of it — and reached over 25,000 individuals, with detailed responses collected from a targeted group of 3,535 participants.

The findings revealed that 32% of respondents were aware of Gen AI, with most exposure coming through chatbots and search engines. Among these aware users, 73% had interacted with Gen AI on their smartphones, underscoring the device’s pivotal role in driving awareness and monetization.

The technology also appears to influence buying behavior, with 59% of respondents expressing openness to switching to Gen AI-enabled smartphones by September 2025, particularly in the US, which leads this trend. Notably, over two-thirds of participants indicated a willingness to pay a premium for smartphones equipped with Gen AI capabilities, reflecting the growing demand for smarter, more efficient devices.

“Writing assistance has emerged as the top use case, thanks to its widespread availability, ease of use, and verifiable outputs. Other popular applications like image generation and voice assistants are also seeing significant adoption. However, features like ‘Circle to Search’ and ‘Call/Meeting Summaries’ ranked lower, likely due to concerns over accuracy and privacy,” said Tarun Pathak, research director, Counterpoint.

2025 might not be the year AI completely transforms our phones, but it could be a significant turning point. It could be the year we start to see AI move beyond gimmicks and truly start to make our lives easier, more creative, and more efficient.