Nine out of 10 Americans use AI on their smartphones, but only 38% realize they are actually using it.
The survey of 2,000 adults looked at how AI is used every day and found that many people are unaware of its presence in their daily lives, including weather forecasting (42%), call screening (35%), autocorrect (34%), voice assistants (26%), and automatic brightness (25%).
For many people, AI-powered camera features like night mode (19%) and photo memory slideshow (20%) are essential to taking and enjoying photos.
The survey, conducted for Samsung by Talker Research, found that even though half of respondents (51%) don’t think they use AI on their phones, 86% reported using common AI tools daily when asked for a list of features.
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When it comes to smartphones in general, one in six people use their smartphone for at least 10 career-related tasks a day, and more than double that percentage (38%) perform a similar number of personal tasks on their device every day.
More than half of Americans (55%), especially Gen Z (74%), primarily use their phones for work-related tasks more than any other device.
The results showed that 47% believe a mobile phone is essential to their career, with younger respondents in the Millennial (65%) and Gen Z (62%) age groups most likely to agree.
Similarly, 6 in 10 people use their phones to stay organized more than they use other devices.
Although the average person only uses half of their phone’s apps on a regular basis, 57% are confident that they can explain all of their phone’s features, whether they use them or not.
Even if you keep your phone on your deck at all times, there’s still a lot to learn. One-third of respondents discover new features on their phone at least once a month (34%).
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When it comes to the use of AI, more specific uses include practical assistance. One respondent said they use AI to get help with ideas, and another said they use AI to better organize tasks. One-third of respondents use AI for job applications.
Some respondents also use AI for more creative purposes, such as teaching them how to cook, helping them write lyrics, or asking random questions for fun conversations.
A quarter of people who initially didn’t think they would be using AI regularly, but later found out they were, said their opinion of AI became more favorable after learning that it was already a part of their daily lives.
Americans are primarily interested in using AI to save time on tasks (28%). But others want to use AI to simplify tasks (27%), provide instant solutions (23%), and improve their skills or learn new things (22%).
As technology continues to evolve, the average respondent believes they have about three years left of using traditional phones before AI changes the way they interact with their devices. One in five people think they have less than a year to live.
When asked what features they would like to see on their smartphones in the next 10 years, some people want even more advanced AI capabilities, such as “monitoring your health, detecting your vital signs, and providing personalized health insights and alerts” and “predicting and automatically inserting your thoughts without you having to type them.”
Others have even greater aspirations for their phones: some want to be able to drive a car, and others want to be able to charge automatically without the need for electricity.
What new features would you like to see on your phone within the next 10 years?
- “It learns about its owner through touch and emotion and alerts us to anything it deems necessary.”
- “It predicts my thoughts and inserts them automatically without you having to type.”
- “Understand your long-term preferences and goals.”
- “We hope that within the next 10 years, mobile phones will be able to fully project and manipulate 3D holograms, allowing us to have virtual meetings, watch movies, and manipulate objects in 3D space without the need for additional devices.”
- “I hope my phone remains as fast and powerful as it is and lasts a week on a single charge.”
- “I look forward to my phone being equipped with advanced health monitoring features powered by AI to detect my vital signs and provide personalized health insights and alerts.”
- “I hope that within the next 10 years, my phone will be able to translate languages in real time during calls.”
- “I envision something like this: My phone listens to conversations in context (with privacy protection, of course) and instantly provides helpful suggestions.”
- “I want to charge without using electricity”
- “To manage my finances and monthly bill payments.”
- “Use gaze control to control screen movement.”
- “In certain emergencies, use safe words to ask for help.”
- “Please drive my car.”
Research method:
Talker Research surveyed 2,000 Americans using a nationally representative measure, with at least 20% using a Samsung cell phone with Internet access. The survey was commissioned by Samsung and administered and conducted online by Talker Research from November 25th to December 2nd.
