AI Features Are Ruining Smartphone Innovation: Here’s Why
Key things
- AI research and development can distract companies from working on new hardware innovations.
- Prioritizing advances in AI results in delays in solving key problems users face with existing models.
- Companies relying on AI can neglect to deliver value to cost-conscious buyers and emphasize novelty over functionality.
Smartphone manufacturers are rushing to integrate artificial intelligence into their devices, betting that it will be the next big thing. Artificial intelligence is certainly useful in various ways, but fixating on it could lead to problems and stifle other innovations that are potentially much more effective.
1 Companies overlook hardware innovation
Regardless of the platform, iOS or Android, smartphone users unanimously agree that innovation in the space has slowed. While I won’t entirely blame the AI features for this, it certainly doesn’t make the situation any better.
Why? Because companies have limited R&D budgets, every dollar spent on advancing an AI model is a dollar not spent on inventing new hardware innovations that may turn out to be much more disruptive.
For example, foldable phones are nowhere near their final form and still need years of refinement. However, the companies that make them may not be able to afford it if they have already spent a large part of their R&D budget on training their in-house large language model.
2 Prioritizing AI leaves key issues unresolved
While no one is denying the utility they can provide, it may not be the best idea to prioritize adding new AI features to devices that are already suffering from issues that need to be fixed. But that’s exactly what some smartphone companies seem to be doing.
For example, the Samsung Galaxy AI features are indeed new and exciting, but it’s safe to assume that most users would prefer the company to fix shutter lag when taking high-resolution photos and reduce the amount of bloatware on Galaxy devices.
Similarly, many Pixel users would like Google to work on improving charging speed, video quality and battery life, fixing shaky lens transitions in the camera app, and offering 256GB as default on its flagships, rather than being swamped with even more AI smarts. .
The thing is, for most people, a smartphone is a tool first and a necessary lifestyle later. So it makes more sense to fix the problems they are currently facing than to simply add new features that are nice but not absolutely necessary.
3 AI features complicate the user interface for non-tech-savvy users
There’s only so much you can add to a user interface before it starts to look cluttered and confusing. You might be able to navigate all the new icons, labels, and UI elements, but most people just aren’t tech-savvy enough to keep up with all the changes.
AI features also sometimes have a steep learning curve, and results aren’t always seen immediately. It takes time to understand and process user input, especially on low-end phones. This may discourage people from using the feature after trying it for a few days.
4 Companies prioritize innovation over value delivery
Since we’re not exactly on the cusp of a major hardware breakthrough in smartphone technology, companies are using AI as a means to differentiate their phones and offer innovations.
So, what’s the problem? Well, it’s one thing to offer existing features at a lower price, and another thing to offer new features at a higher price. And the tech giants seem to be leaning towards the latter approach, which is bad news for value-minded buyers who just want an affordable phone that hits all the basics.
But when companies start integrating AI into everything, you have no choice but to pay for these new features, even though you may not actually need them. Companies would be better off focusing on providing value over novelty.
To be clear, I’m not saying that everyone should discourage the integration of AI into smartphones. We’re saying that companies shouldn’t be so obsessed with AI that they overlook other important aspects of smartphones. AI features shouldn’t be the reason a company doesn’t fix existing problems or forget other avenues of innovation.