Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become and important differentiator among smartphones. Virtual Assistants, machine learning and on-device AI are all important trends among modern smartphones. Strategy Analytics Emerging Device Strategies (EDS) service has released a new report looking into the artificial Intelligence area in smartphones.

Best known Virtual Assistants in smartphones are Siri in iPhones, Google Now and Google Assistant in Android devices, S-Voice or Bixby in Samsung Android smartphones and Baidu Duer in China. Together these assistants cover most of the virtual assistant market in smartphones. Other assistants that have not taken off or have otherwise limited reach are Cortana, BlackBerry Assistant and Alexa. 

Originally there was very little actual intelligence inside the assistants and the heavy lifting was done mostly in the cloud (which is why the assistants do not work well if there is no data connection available) using advanced machine learning algorithms, natural language processing etc. However, lately with the implementation of machine learning into the operating systems (Tensor Flow Lite in Android Oreo) as well as introduction of AI engines (Neural Engine in A11 chip) into the hardware side, some of that functionality is being moved from the cloud to the devices to get faster response times and more locally processed commands.

The new report sheds light on the Virtual Assistant landscape, on-device machine learning as well the new "AI" chips and forecasts the future of those technologies from 2010 to 2022.

Our clients can access the report here.

Strategy Analytics Emerging Device Strategies (EDS) service continues to keep our fingers on the pulse of the industry bringing our clients up to date and timely reports describing the industry technological developments among smartphones, feature phones, drones, robots, 360 cameras, etc. Stay tuned for more.