Users evaluating AI features based on relevancy and usability. However, it still does not feature in top reasons triggering an upgrade.

Gurugram / Srinagar – As per the latest report ‘AI Smartphone Brands Benchmarking’ released today, the customers across price segments can choose from over 150 smartphone models to handshake the revolution of AI elevating their experiences and value from technology for both personal and professional use cases.  These include smartphones launched with out-of-box AI capabilities as well as the earlier models which have been upgraded with software upgrades over these months.

Sharing the insights of the report, Faisal Kawoosa, Chief Analyst and co-founder Techarc said, “Smartphone brands are fast embracing AI after 5G has become mainstream. This is allowing the brands to stay aligned with the competition and elevate the utility and experience of smartphones for users.”

“Though the customer pull for AI in smartphones is ‘modest’, it is going to be a feature of interest for them in the upcoming festive sales season. OEMs, marketplaces, retailers as well as influencers are going to showcase AI as the key proposition across price segments while promoting smartphones across price points,” added Faisal.

The report traces the evolution of user understanding of AI with regards to their smartphones, which suggests there is a shift in expectations where users are now benchmarking smartphones on the relevancy and usability of AI features rather than mere availability in a smartphone model or brand.  As users are acquiring more knowledge and understanding about AI in their smartphones, they are more interested in learning how relevant these features are to them and how can it be implemented throughout the spectrum of use cases they use their smartphones for.

“The users are keener to understand how AI can be useful to them rather than just going by the number of AI features a model has to offer,” said Harshit Chaturvedi, junior analyst with Techarc.

Report key takeaways:

• AI is still not a trending feature for users triggering a smartphone upgrade. However, they are keen to learn more about how it can be relevant and useful to them.  The smartphone brands must design their campaigns around educating consumers about the relevance and usability of AI features as they prepare for the festive season. They also need to understand how users are currently using their smartphones and how AI can elevate the experience and increase the value.
• Defensible differentiation remains a challenge for OEMs as they leverage the same fundamental technology blocks for enabling AI in their smartphones. Some brands are however, blending the proposition with proprietary AI features that give them relative competitiveness with early or first mover advantage.
• In terms of AI features spread, Motorola leads with 19 features followed by Samsung and Realme with 15 features each. This is followed by Google and Tecno with 14 features.
• Among the AI features enabled, the focus remains on enhancing content creation or consumption. These features enhance the output either at the time of creation or during postproduction processes.  Techarc classifies AI features using its proprietary ACE framework that distinguishes the features into Assist, Create and Enhance depending on their value addition.
• With Agentic AI catching up in smartphones, OEMs have also started focusing on Assistive features.  These features can assist users in completing an entire task and following an instruction path integrating several applications together.
• Vivo leads with 6 assist features, while Apple has maximum 4 create features.  Motorola has the maximum 11 enhance features in its smartphones.  Vivo will have to work more on its association with AI. Despite having maximum number of assist features, as a brand its recall is still strong with camera than AI.
• By relevancy, Motorola leads with 69% relevancy rate of the AI features it offers. Realme stands 2^nd with 56% relevancy rate.  Samsung ranks 3^rd in relevancy with 54% relevancy rate.  Relevancy rate reflects the percentage at which users find the features offered relevant or significant in their existing use cases of a smartphone.
• In terms of usability, Tecno led with 79% usability rate followed by Motorola 67%.  Samsung and Google shared the 3rd slot with 64% usability rate.  Usability rate reflects how useful are the AI features across the bread of applications that users use a smartphone for. These use cases spread across content (creation and consumption) and communication.
• With the changing consumer expectations from AI in smartphones, the best AI brand was ascertained after benchmarking the smartphone brands across spread (number of features), relevance (significance of features) and usability (usage of features).  A weighted score was computed to arrive at the ranking of best AI brands in which Tecno lead the chart, followed by Motorola and Samsung securing 2^nd spot. Realme stood 3^rd in the ranking.  To rank high in AI, brands will have to use a hybrid AI strategy offering what they can acquire from the common platforms like Gemini, OpenAI, Meta, etc., and at the same time develop their proprietary AI functions that are high on the relevancy and usability of the user segments they serve.

To read the entire report, please click here.

Important Notes:

For any clarifications regarding this report, please submit a request here.

• Media publications can use the report findings as part of their existing features/stories or write an exclusive story basis the findings of the report.
• No brand or its direct or indirect partner is authorised to share the report findings in public domain including any digital platform or social media channels without explicit permission from Techarc. The permission can be requested by writing to info[at]techarc.net.
• No brand is allowed to make any claim with this benchmarking report as the source without written authorisation from Techarc. The authorisation can be requested by writing to info[a]techarc.net.
• This is an independent report by Techarc and is not endorsed / sponsored by any brand / partner or any other organisation directly or indirectly associated with any brand.
• Techarc does not take responsibility of the business/reputation impact of this benchmarking report in any form. The sole objective of this report is to bring customer perspective of as their AI understanding evolves further.
• All the data and research done during this benchmarking has been done using credible sources and same have been validated through the smartphone ecosystem.