Apple’s newest update, iOS 18, brought with it a long list of AI features, dubbed Apple Intelligence. Gemini Live is now available on Android phones, Lenovo created an AI-powered laptop, and Google can’t get enough AI in its search results, or its phones.
If you’ve looked around at phone updates recently and thought, “huh, that’s a lot of AI features — too bad I don’t care about that at all,” you wouldn’t be alone. According to a survey of 2,484 adults including 2,387 smartphone owners from CNET and YouGov, people aren’t ecstatic about AI on their phones.
A quarter of smartphone users reported that they “don’t find AI features helpful” at all while about half of respondents said they weren’t interested in paying a monthly subscription fee for AI capabilities. Meanwhile, about a third have privacy concerns about AI on their phones.
This changes a bit depending on generation, with younger people more comfortable and willing to spend on AI than older smartphone users. Overall, according to CNET, AI is “among the last reasons consumers want to upgrade their smartphones.”
Then what is actually drawing smartphone users to upgrade? Battery life, of course. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said longer battery life is their “biggest motivation” for an upgrade, followed by more storage and better camera features. AI integrations motivated just 18 percent of respondents.
No matter why you choose to upgrade, waiting on AI seems to be the best route. After all, it is moving at quite the pace.
