What was being seen as the next big frontier for consumers may be turning out to be a dud. Samsung’s flagship mobiles in 2024 centred around offering fresh, new AI-based features across photo editing, text generation, and interactive search while Apple’s latest iPhones came with Apple Intelligence, a spread of GenAI features being introduced in a staggered manner till mid-2025. For others, such as Xiaomi and Vivo, AI-based features were there in most recent launches.Cutting the hype, only around 10% of the estimated 154 million smartphones shipped in 2024 in India are actually capable of running on-device generative AI, said Counterpoint Research. A poll conducted in November by Canalys revealed 31% of retailers do not plan to sell AI PCs in 2025 due to poor adoption. Even more so, only 4 out of 10 users in India are even aware that smartphones now are artificially intelligent, slightly higher than the global average, Counterpoint said.The general apathy towards AI hardware is even making some smartphone brands hold back on talking about AI in their products, afraid that consumers may consider them irrelevant, or even worse, a gimmick. The recent launches from smartphone brands have mostly focused around their core competencies. Nearly every brand beside Samsung, Oppo, and Apple have held back on making the technology the centerpiece.117213036“We have the whole AI stack. It is not that we are missing out on something but our core offering is so good that we don’t even need to talk about AI. Brands are using AI to mask what they don’t have,” a Vivo spokesperson said. The company recently launched its camera-centric flagship smartphone that also makes use of the neural processing unit in the processor and Google’s Gemini Mini LLM to deliver tasks such as transcription, magic eraser, and more.“No, we are not holding back. I think we need to figure out what consumers actually need in terms of AI. There are lots of things that are being proposed in AI, a lot of features are being given so what is a killer App in AI still needs to come out,” Vivo said.This is not the case with PC manufacturers, however, who have gone full steam ahead marketing their products around AI-based use cases. The industry even saw the entry of Qualcomm in the PC space in a significant manner, with its CoPilot+ PCs. There are now over a dozen notebooks powered by Qualcomm’s AI processors in the market that have exclusive on-device AI features like real-time live captions and translations, image generator, and more.“Despite the positive momentum, significant work must still be done to convince both channel partners and end customers of the benefits of AI-capable PCs,” said Ishan Dutt, principal analyst at Canalys.117213046It’s not just consumers. Even industry insiders are not convinced of AI hardware taking over the market yet.“We’ve seen AI in various implementations in the past; however, in 2024, AI gained a lot of attention. We’ve also seen device brands using it to grab the attention of customers. However, what’s noteworthy is how the pre-purchase interest and curiosity around AI features in smartphones could vary significantly with the post-purchase reality of the same features if the use cases aren’t strong enough,” said Anuj Sharma, chief marketing officer, Xiaomi India.Not everyone though. Smartphone brand Oppo remains bullish about AI leading to increasing sales. It was the fastest growing smartphone brand in Q3 2024 among the top five, according to IDC, which it said was driven primarily by its AI-centric phones.“2024 has been a landmark year for us on the AI-driven product innovation front… In fact, by year-end, OPPO’s Gen AI features will reach approximately 50 million users globally,” said Savio D’Souza, head of product communications, Oppo India.The goalpost has now shifted to 2025 and beyond. Market trackers said an inflection point will come once smartphones priced under $400 come equipped with handling AI workloads on-device. “Key players including Android brands, SoC vendors, LLM developers and the expanding AI software ecosystem, are working together to accelerate the integration of GenAI into smartphones,” Counterpoint said in a report. This is expected to happen by late 2025, IDC and Counterpoint Research said, adding that the proliferation will depend on chipset makers funneling down AI capabilities to lower-end chipsets to support on-device genAI.“A lot also depends on how these phones diffuse to lower price tiers, which they have not. The use cases around them have also not developed in a big way. AI-based imaging has just started to come up among the Chinese smartphone brands, but most brands are also taking a staggered approach to launching AI features,” said Tarun Pathak, research director, Counterpoint Research.The research firm estimates that by 2028, around 54% of total smartphone shipments will be AI-capable, with an installed base of over 1 billion globally. That is still a long time away.