Although I don’t get a chance to use every smartphone released throughout the year, my role as Phones Editor at AP means I usually have first-hand knowledge of the trends taking over the mobile industry. That said, you don’t need to try out every device alike to recognize AI as the buzzword du jour. From Samsung to Google to, yes, even Apple, we’ve spent the last 12 months — and in Google’s case, even longer — hearing about how AI is rebuilding the core concept of what a smartphone can be.
Except, is it? With an entire AI-based product cycle under our collective belts, it feels like it’s as good a time as any to look at how the earliest days of the so-called AI era have been going. And while there’s an argument to be made that some of the features are pretty exciting (or, at the very least, have the potential to evolve into something exciting), I can’t say I feel the same way. With every “new” smartphone now feeling like a testing ground for tools users haven’t been asking for, I’m wondering if our devices will ever start to feel like complete products ever again.
