Consumer AI Gadgets Will Come With a Whimper, Not a Bang

Published 1 day ago• 4 minute read

(Bloomberg Opinion) -- Where are all the artificial intelligence consumer gadgets? Even a year ago, it seemed tech companies were working to incorporate the technology into every physical device, from coffee makers to vacuums, making “AI-powered” hardware seem like it would soon be as ubiquitous as “battery-powered” electronics.

Typically, tech conferences offer a glimmer of these futuristic toys. Not all of them end up hitting the market, but it’s where we can dream a little about new pocket devices or household robots taking on a greater role in our lives.

So it was a little disappointing last week at Asia’s biggest artificial intelligence conference, Taiwan’s Computex, to find hardly any mentions of consumer-facing tech. Most keynotes focused on enterprise applications of AI, such as agents or automated manufacturing. Walking around the exhibitors’ hall, the only thing that caught my eye were wireless computer mice shaped like cats.

A few things seem to have changed. For starters, there’s the reality that hardware engineering presents an entirely different set of physical challenges compared to tinkering with AI software. And a global trade war also makes it a risky time to launch a new gadget when it’s unclear if consumers are interested. Companies also may be starting to pick up on the fact that while Wall Street is awash with global hype on the AI boom, it isn’t exactly a selling point on Main Street.

If anything, some of the executives speaking at the conference threw cold water on the next generations of these AI-first consumer products. Asustek Computer Inc. co-Chief Executive Officer Samson Hu told Bloomberg News that it will take another year or more for AI-powered PCs to go mainstream because the technology isn’t quite there yet and macroeconomic uncertainty is impacting people’s spending. There have been few compelling use cases for AI PCs so far, despite the mountain of promotion.

Meanwhile, the graveyard of AI hardware that was supposed to transform our lives is already growing. The Humane Ai Pin wearable device — launched last year to much hype about how it was going to replace the smartphone — ended up receiving brutal reviews while being a fire hazard. The startup, run by two former Apple Inc. employees, stopped selling the Ai Pin earlier this year and was sold for parts. The Rabbit R1 assistant is another cautionary tale of the false promises of these gadgets.

But that doesn’t mean the future of AI consumer products isn’t coming. OpenAI made the major announcement last week that it is working with legendary iPhone designer Jony Ive to launch something that takes AI into the physical realm for consumers. But even the might of OpenAI’s technology and Ive’s design prowess make whatever it is a far from certain bet.

There were perhaps some lessons for the future of such devices from the gathering in Taiwan. During his keynote speech, Qualcomm Inc. Chief Executive Officer Cristiano Amon said that AI computers are at the phase where they will require the work of outside developers to make them appeal to consumers. The iPhone, for example, didn’t take off immediately after it was launched. But it became essential to so many people because of the myriad apps developers built on top of it that we now use to hail taxis, order food or move around new cities. “Really, the developer ecosystem is going to make this shift to AI PCs,” Amon said. He’s right, and the same is true beyond just AI computers.

For any revolutionary AI hardware device, and especially a smartphone killer, the more that global developers lead the charge to meet peoples’ needs and solve small, everyday problems, the more likely they are to succeed. In this economy, maybe that doesn’t mean repackaging the same old gadgets with shiny new AI labels. It means iterating and perfecting real use cases that incorporate the buzzy technology into devices and make our lives easier. And this will inevitably be a collective effort.

AI is already transforming our world in small ways. I find asking ChatGPT to quickly translate phrases for me while on the go a lifesaver when navigating a new country. But I hardly want to shell out money to carry around a new device simply to access ChatGPT.

The more the tech industry tries to slap AI onto everything and market it as a panacea for all our problems, the more I get a snake-oil salesman ick. The future of AI hardware won’t come in a magical new gadget, it will be built by tackling these tasks one-by-one and not all at once.