Smarter and better with GenAI: What is coming to your phone in 2024

This will be the year when the power of generative artificial intelligence will come embedded in our phones. You could use as a personal assistant to get quicker answers to queries

Smartphones are getting smarter. This year our inseparable devices will become better as companies integrate generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) in the software. GenAI can do much more for consumers in ways that smartphones without the technology may soon become obsolete. 
 

Some features and various apps already use AI put up in a Cloud service, but not the phone’s operating system itself. Now such devices will have GenAI – a type of AI technology that can produce various types of content, including text, imagery, and audio – preinstalled. AI will not need a download from an app store. 
 

Consider how things will change. So far, AI would be triggered when a smartphone user posted a query. AI on the Cloud would assist the search and offer a reply. Coming up, a mobile device loaded with GenAI would be able to predict and answer queries based on previous history. It will be able to anticipate a user’s need and perform a task even before it is asked to do it. If a user writes a list of groceries on her phone, AI will set itself the task of checking the calendar, plan navigation to a local store or even help in ordering online. 
 

Other interesting features would be real-time language translation and AI-based filter and scene recognition for photos. GenAI will convert a phone into an even more powerful computer to generate images, text and videos within the device. 
 

Today GenAI bots answer queries using Cloud services run by Amazon, Microsoft, Google and other companies. Every time a user makes a request, one of the big Cloud service providers has to process the information and come up with a result. With GenAI installed, the first set of queries will be managed within the device if it has a history of relevant information. If it doesn’t, the queries will be sent to Cloud. This format will distribute computing power between Cloud servers and the processing ability within the device. It will lower the cost of computing by dividing work between Cloud and device. 
 

“As generative AI becomes more integrated in our lives, our personal devices like our smartphones, PCs (personal computers), vehicles, and even IoT (internet of things) devices will become the hubs for multi-modal generative AI models,” says Durga Malladi, senior vice-president & general manager of technology planning & edge solutions at Qualcomm Technologies’, in an article on the company’s website.
 

As GenAI becomes part of smartphones, personal AI assistants will evolve into indispensable companions by continuously learning from our daily lives to provide tailored experiences, according to Qualcomm. 
 

Technology companies will drive large language models (LLM) – the backbone of tools like ChatGPT – on phones to train AI and maximise information sources. GenAI in smartphones will bring regional, linguistic and demographic diversity in the data which will feed LLMs. India-based GenAI models being developed by Ola, Reliance Industries and other companies could be embedded in phones manufactured domestically. Devices will need much greater computing power and smarter chips to be able to run AI for consumers. 
 

Manufacturers have launched or are launching GenAI mobile devices. These include market leaders Samsung, Apple and Google Pixel. Chinese phone makers are not far behind. 
 

The international market for GenAI phones is expected to rise sharply. More than a billion GenAI smartphones will be shipped cumulatively between 2024-2027, according to Counterpoint Research. “These devices will run size-optimised AI models natively and come with certain hardware specifications. Our short-term GenAI landscape sees OEM (original equipment manufacturer) road maps touching on four main areas – info provisioning, image building, live translation, and personal assistant applications,” it says. 
 

This year will be the one when GenAI becomes a part of the daily lives of people around the world.