What AI-powered smartphones could do for you

More smartphone vendors will use AI as a critical selling point to retain current customers while acquiring new ones. — AFP

More smartphone vendors are injecting Artificial Intelligence (AI) into their products, and research company Gartner believes that by 2022, 80% of smartphones will have on-device AI capabilities. This, Gartner believes, will be a critical selling point for smartphone vendors to retain current customers while acquiring new ones.

“With smartphones increasingly becoming a commodity device, vendors are looking for ways to differentiate their products,” said Gartner research director C.K. Lu.

“Future AI capabilities will allow smartphones to learn, plan and solve problems for users. This isn’t just about making the smartphone smarter, but augmenting people by reducing their cognitive load. However, AI capabilities on smartphones are still in very early stages.”

So what can an AI-powered smartphones do for you? Here are 10 things it could possibly accomplish.

An extension of the user

 “Your smartphone will track you throughout the day to learn, plan and solve problems for you,” said Gartner principle research analyst

Angie Wang. “It will leverage its sensors, cameras and data to accomplish these tasks automatically. For example, in the connected home, it could order a vacuum bot to clean when the house is empty, or turn a rice cooker on 20 minutes before you arrive.”

Better security for your data

An AI-powered smartphone will be more secure by utilising the security technology and pairing it with machine learning, biometrics and user behaviour. It could increase the phone’s usability and self-service capabilities. The smartphone will learn the user’s patterns when they walk, swipe, apply pressure on the phone, scroll and type, and know that it is in the right hands.

Sense user’s emotion

Virtual personal assistants and other AI-based technology like Alexa and Echo are increasing the need to add emotional intelligence to better the service and experience. For example, car manufacturers can use the smartphone’s front camera to analyse the driver’s physical condition or fatigue levels for increased safety.

Understand natural language

Machine learning will improve the accuracy of speech recognition, and better understanding of the user’s specific intentions. For instance, when a user says “the weather is cold”, the smartphone could understand if the user actually means “please order a jacket online” or “please turn up the heat”. Natural-language understanding could be used as a near real-time voice translator on smartphones when travelling abroad.

Augmented Reality (AR) and AI Vision

Apple included an ARKit feature with the release of iOS 11. This provides new tools to developers to make adding AR to apps easier. Google also announced its ARCore AR developer tool for Android and expects almost every new Android phone to be AR-ready out of the box next year. One example of how AR can be used is in apps that help to collect user data and detect illnesses such as skin cancer.

Manage your device

The phones can better understand and learn user’s behavior, such as when to use which app. The smartphone will be able to keep frequently used apps running in the background for quick re-launch, or to shut down unused apps to save memory and battery.

Personal profiling

Smartphones can collect data for behavioural and personal profiling for insurance companies. The insurers can analyse and adjust the car insurance rate based on the user’s driving behaviour, or gauge their home or leisure activities for personal insurance.

Automatically detects restricted content

Computer recognition software can detect any content that violates laws or policies. For example, downloading pirated content or storing highly classified data on company-paid smartphones could notify the relevant IT department.

Personalised photos

The smartphones could automatically produce beautified photos according to the user’s aesthetic preferences. It could give them a pale or tanned complexion based on their filter history.

Audio analytics

Phones can listen to real-world sounds, and the AI could, on top of identifying them, instruct the users or trigger events. For example, if the smartphone hears the user snoring, it could trigger the user’s health app to encourage a change in sleeping positions.