Use on-device AI for faster, more private interactions, not cloud-based AI for everything
Your Own Brain vs. a Phone Call to a Genius
Imagine you need an answer. Cloud-based AI is like calling a genius who lives across the world. You have to send your question over the phone line, wait for them to think, and then they send the answer back. It’s powerful, but it’s slow and they keep a record of your private call. On-device AI is like having that genius living right inside your own brain. The answer is instant, the conversation is completely private because it never leaves your head, and it works even when you have no signal.
Stop just using Google Assistant. Do start using Google Gemini for more creative and complex tasks
The Fact-Checker vs. The Brainstorming Partner
Google Assistant is the world’s best fact-checker. You ask it for the weather, a sports score, or to set a timer, and it gives you a perfect, factual answer. Google Gemini is the creative partner you invite into the room for a brainstorming session. You don’t ask it for facts; you ask it for ideas. “Help me plan a surprise party,” “Draft a polite email to my boss,” or “Write a bedtime story about a robot.” Assistant gives you answers; Gemini helps you create something entirely new.
Stop just looking at photos. Do use “Magic Editor” to recompose and edit your photos with generative AI
The Photographer vs. The Dream Artist
Taking a photo used to be about capturing a single, frozen moment. What you saw was what you got. Magic Editor transforms you from a photographer into a dream artist. You took a great picture, but the person is slightly off-center? Just pick them up and move them. Wish the gloomy sky was a beautiful sunset? Just tell the photo to change the weather. You are no longer just capturing reality; you are given the magical paintbrush to perfect your memories into the masterpieces you imagined.
The #1 secret for the future of search that Google is pioneering is “Circle to Search,” not typing queries into a search bar
The Power of Pointing
For decades, searching has been like describing an object to someone in another room. You type “blue suede shoes with white laces” and hope they understand. “Circle to Search” is the future. It’s like being in the same room and simply pointing. You see a cool plant in a friend’s photo, a stylish jacket in a video, or a landmark you don’t recognize. You just circle it with your finger and ask, “What is this?” It’s a lightning-fast, intuitive leap that feels like a superpower.
I’m just going to say it: The future of Android is an “ambient computing” OS where the phone is just one node in a network of intelligent devices
The Orchestra, Not the Soloist
For years, your phone has been the star soloist, the one brilliant musician you paid attention to. The future of Android is an entire, intelligent orchestra. Your phone, your watch, your earbuds, your TV, and even your car will work in perfect harmony. You’ll start a podcast in the car, and it will seamlessly move to your home speaker when you walk in the door. The phone is no longer the star; it’s just the conductor for a symphony of devices that intelligently surround you.
The reason your next phone will feel smarter is because of the powerful, efficient NPUs (Neural Processing Units) in the hardware, not just the CPU
The Specialist Brain for Your Phone
Imagine your phone’s main processor (CPU) is a brilliant, all-purpose handyman. It can do anything, but it’s not a specialist. The new NPU is a dedicated, genius-level expert hired specifically for AI tasks. This expert can translate languages, identify objects, and understand your voice with breathtaking speed and efficiency, using far less energy. This frees up the handyman to focus on other jobs, making the entire system feel smarter, faster, and more responsive than ever before.
If you’re still typing all your messages, you’re going to be left behind by AI-powered “Magic Compose” that can rewrite your texts in different styles
The Personal Writing Coach in Your Keyboard
You type out a quick, blunt message: “I can’t make it tonight.” Magic Compose is like having a personal writing coach who instantly suggests better options. With one tap, it can rewrite your message to be more professional (“Unfortunately, I will be unable to attend this evening.”) or more excited (“So bummed I can’t make it! Let’s definitely do it again soon!”). It’s a tool that doesn’t just check your spelling; it enhances your tone and emotional intelligence, ensuring your words land exactly as you intend.
The biggest lie you’ve been told about AI on your phone is that it will be a perfect, all-knowing assistant. It will still make mistakes
The Brilliant Intern, Not the Flawless CEO
We imagine our phone’s AI will be a flawless, all-knowing CEO. In reality, it will be more like a brilliant, incredibly fast, and eager-to-please intern. It will be able to draft amazing reports, summarize complex information, and come up with creative ideas in seconds. But it will also occasionally misunderstand the instructions, get a fact wrong, or make a goofy mistake. It’s a powerful and revolutionary tool, but it’s still a student of our world, not its master.
I wish I knew how quickly generative AI wallpapers would advance; the static wallpapers of today will look ancient soon
The Living Painting on Your Wall
For decades, our phone’s wallpaper has been a static, printed poster that we tape to the screen. Generative AI wallpapers are like having a living, magical painting. You can say, “Create a surrealist painting of a futuristic city in the style of Van Gogh,” and your phone will generate a unique masterpiece just for you. As you swipe or unlock your phone, the painting will subtly shift and animate. The static, lifeless wallpapers of today will soon feel like relics from a bygone era.
99% of users make this one mistake: fearing AI instead of learning how to use it as a powerful tool
The Hammer, Not the Monster
When the first hammer was invented, some probably saw it as a dangerous weapon, a scary monster that could cause harm. But the smart ones saw it for what it was: a tool. A tool that could be used to build a house, a ship, or a beautiful piece of furniture. AI is the most powerful hammer ever invented. Fearing it and refusing to pick it up means you’ll be left behind. Learning how to wield it skillfully will give you the power to build your own future.
This one small action of using an AI-powered notes app that summarizes your recordings will change how you take minutes forever
The Magical, Self-Writing Notebook
Taking minutes in a meeting is a pain. You’re trying to listen, participate, and write all at the same time. An AI notes app is a magical notebook. You just hit record and focus on the conversation. When the meeting is over, you tap one button. The app instantly provides a full, written transcript, a concise summary of the key topics, and a perfectly organized list of all the action items. You didn’t just record the meeting; you captured and understood it.
Use a phone with a long software support window (7+ years), not one that will be obsolete in two years
The House Built of Brick vs. The House Built of Cardboard
Buying a phone with only two years of updates is like buying a house made of cardboard. It looks great on day one, but it quickly becomes unsafe, insecure, and obsolete. A phone with seven years of guaranteed software updates is a house built of solid brick. It will remain secure, get all the latest features, and continue to be a safe and reliable home for your digital life for years to come. It’s an investment in a durable future, not a disposable present.
Stop thinking about phones and tablets as separate. Do expect more foldable and dual-screen devices that blur the lines
The Book That Becomes a Map
For years, we’ve had two separate things: a small pocket notebook (a phone) and a large atlas (a tablet). The future is a single, magical device that can be both. A foldable phone is a pocket-sized notebook that, when you need more detail, can unfold into a giant, beautiful map. This blurring of the lines means you no longer have to choose between portability and a big screen. You get the best of both worlds in one revolutionary package.
Stop just using your camera to take pictures. Do expect it to be a primary input for an AI that understands the world around you
Your Eyes vs. Your Brain’s Eyes
For decades, your camera has just been your phone’s eyes. It captures light and records a picture. In the AI era, the camera is becoming the eyes for the phone’s brain. It’s not just seeing a picture of a dog; the AI is understanding that it is a Golden Retriever, identifying its breed, and offering to show you similar pictures. The camera is transforming from a simple recording device into the primary sensor for an intelligent being that can see and comprehend the world.
The #1 hack for staying ahead is to join the Android Beta Program to test new OS features before they are released
The Test Driver for a Formula 1 Car
Being in the Android Beta Program is like being a test driver for a Formula 1 racing team. While the rest of the world is waiting for next year’s car to be revealed at the big auto show, you get to be on the track, driving it months in advance. You get to experience the raw power of the new engine, test the experimental features, and see the future before anyone else. It’s a thrilling way to live on the cutting edge.
I’m just going to say it: Your data is the fuel for the AI revolution, and you are giving it away for free
The Oil in Your Backyard
Imagine you discovered your backyard was sitting on a massive, trillion-dollar oil reserve. The AI revolution is powered by a single, precious resource: data. Your photos, your messages, your location, and your search history are the crude oil that these multi-trillion-dollar companies are drilling for, for free. They then refine this oil into the intelligence that powers their new products. We are all the unpaid, unknowing resource providers for the most valuable commodity in the modern world.
The reason future apps will be more powerful is their ability to use AI to predict your needs before you act
The Butler Who Brings You Your Coat
A current app is like a butler who stands in the corner and waits for your command. A future AI-powered app is a butler who sees that it’s cloudy outside, knows your calendar says you have a meeting, and brings you your coat and umbrella just as you’re about to walk out the door. The app won’t just respond to your requests; it will use context and your personal history to anticipate your needs, proactively serving you before you even have to ask.
If you’re still using a phone without a dedicated AI co-processor, you’re missing out on the next wave of mobile computing
The Translator’s Booth in Your Brain
Running complex AI tasks on a regular phone is like trying to do simultaneous translation while also giving a speech. You can do it, but you’ll be slow and clumsy. A dedicated AI chip is like having a professional, sound-proof translator’s booth installed directly in your brain. The main part of your brain can focus on running the show, while the specialist handles the complex language tasks instantly and efficiently. It’s a fundamental hardware shift that enables a new level of intelligence.
The biggest lie is that AI will take all our jobs. It will be a tool that augments our abilities
The Power Saw for the Carpenter
When the power saw was invented, some carpenters were probably terrified it would take their jobs. But it didn’t. It became a tool that allowed them to build more, faster, and better than ever before. AI is the ultimate power saw. It won’t replace the carpenter’s skill, creativity, or understanding of the materials. It will be a powerful partner that handles the tedious, repetitive tasks, freeing up the human to focus on the design, the artistry, and the final, crucial details.
I wish I knew that the “AI” features of today are just a tiny glimpse of what will be possible in five years
The First Photograph vs. a Hollywood Movie
The AI we have today is like the very first, blurry, black-and-white photograph from the 1800s. It was a mind-blowing, revolutionary invention that hinted at a new world. The AI we will have in five years is a full-color, high-definition, surround-sound Hollywood blockbuster. The leap in capability, realism, and power will be so immense that we will look back on the AI of today and see it as a charming but primitive first step on an incredible journey.
99% of users don’t think about the ethical implications of the AI they are using every day
The Magical, Unquestioned Servant
We are being given a magical, all-powerful servant that can write our emails, create our art, and answer our questions. It’s so useful and dazzling that we never stop to ask the important questions. Where did this servant learn its skills? Was it trained on stolen, copyrighted material? Does it have hidden biases that will affect its work? We are so eager to accept the magic that we are forgetting to question the magician.
This one small habit of fact-checking the output of generative AI will save you from embarrassing errors forever
The Confident but Occasionally Wrong Intern
Generative AI is like a brilliant, incredibly fast intern who has read every book in the world but sometimes gets the details mixed up. They will write a report for you with breathtaking speed and confidence. But because they don’t truly “understand” the material, they might confidently invent a historical fact or a scientific study. Always treat the output as a fantastic first draft, not a finished fact. A quick, 30-second fact-check is the crucial step that separates a smart user from a foolish one.
Use AI to screen your calls and texts, not just block spam numbers
The Intelligent Receptionist for Your Life
Blocking a spam number is like putting a “No Trespassing” sign on your door. An AI call screener is like hiring a professional, intelligent receptionist who sits at your front desk. They can answer the phone, have a polite conversation with the unknown caller, and then buzz you to say, “It’s the delivery guy, should I send him up?” This turns your phone from a public utility that anyone can access into a private office where only the important calls get through.
Stop thinking of your phone as a communication device. Do start thinking of it as a personalized AI companion
The Tool vs. The Partner
For decades, your phone has been a tool, like a hammer. You pick it up, use it for a specific task, and put it down. The future is a phone that is a partner. It’s an AI companion that learns your habits, understands your needs, and proactively helps you throughout your day. It’s no longer just a window to the internet; it’s an intelligent entity that lives in your pocket, a personalized co-pilot for navigating the complexities of modern life.
Stop just searching for information. Do expect your phone’s AI to proactively provide you with the information you need, when you need it
The Map vs. The Tour Guide
A search engine is a magical map. You can ask it for directions to anywhere. A proactive AI is a personal tour guide who is walking with you. This guide knows your flight is delayed, sees that there’s traffic on the way to the airport, and proactively suggests a new route and tells you the best place to get coffee near the new gate. You don’t have to ask; the information you need, in the context of your life, will find you.
The #1 secret that manufacturers won’t admit is that the next big leap in mobile tech is software and AI, not hardware
The Car’s Engine vs. The Driver’s Brain
For years, the race has been all about hardware—a faster engine, a bigger gas tank. But we have reached a point of diminishing returns. The most exciting frontier is no longer the car’s engine; it’s the intelligence of the driver. A brilliant AI “driver” can make a car with a good engine perform miracles, optimizing fuel, avoiding traffic, and anticipating turns. The future isn’t a slightly faster phone; it’s a dramatically smarter one.
I’m just going to say it: The battle between Google’s Gemini and Apple’s on-device AI will be the new “Android vs. iOS” debate
The Heavyweight Championship of Intelligence
The old war was about the design of the boxing gloves and the shape of the ring. The new, great war will be about the skill of the boxer. The central question will no longer be “Which phone has a better screen?” but “Which phone has a smarter, more helpful, and more creative AI living inside it?” This will be the heavyweight championship fight of the next decade, a battle of intelligence that will redefine what we expect from our personal technology.
The reason your phone will feel more “human” is the advancement in conversational AI and more natural text-to-speech voices
The Robot vs. The Companion
For years, talking to our phone has been like talking to a robot. The voice was mechanical, and it only understood rigid commands. The new generation of AI is like talking to a real companion. The voices are becoming warm, nuanced, and almost indistinguishable from a human’s. The AI can understand context, humor, and the subtleties of a real conversation. It’s a leap that will transform our relationship with our devices from one of command-and-control to one of genuine, natural interaction.
If you’re still manually organizing your photos, you’re not ready for an AI that will automatically tag, sort, and create albums for you with incredible accuracy
The Personal Librarian for Your Memories
Manually sorting your thousands of digital photos is like being the lonely, overworked librarian for the entire Library of Congress. It’s an impossible, soul-crushing task. The future is an AI librarian who can, in seconds, read the contents of every single photo, identify every person, place, and thing, and then perfectly organize them into beautiful, labeled albums. You don’t have to work in the library anymore; you can just enjoy reading the books.
The biggest lie is that you will have full control over the AI on your device
The Wild Horse
We are being given a wild, powerful, and intelligent horse. We can learn to ride it, we can guide it, and we can build a relationship with it. But the biggest lie is that we will ever be in “full control.” This horse has its own thoughts, its own biases from its training, and its own connections back to the giant corporation that created it. It is a powerful partner, but it is not a simple, obedient machine. It is a new form of intelligence that we will influence, but never truly own.
I wish I knew that the large language models of today would be able to run locally on the phones of tomorrow
The Entire Library in Your Backpack
The powerful AI models of today are like the entire Library of Congress. To access them, you need a high-speed connection to the massive, power-hungry building where they are housed. The breakthrough of the near future is the ability to shrink that entire library down, with all its knowledge, and fit it into your backpack. Having that immense power running directly on your phone, with no internet required, will unlock a new level of speed, privacy, and capability that we are only just beginning to imagine.
99% of users will use AI without understanding the basics of how it works
The Driver Who’s Not a Mechanic
Almost everyone knows how to drive a car. Almost no one knows how the internal combustion engine works. And that’s okay. The same will be true for AI. The vast majority of people will use these incredibly complex systems to navigate their lives, to create, and to communicate, without any understanding of the neural networks or transformer models that make it all possible. They don’t need to be mechanics; they just need to know how to steer.
This one small action of trying an AI-powered keyboard will show you the future of predictive and generative text
The Typewriter That Finishes Your Sentences
A normal keyboard is a typewriter. It only types what you tell it to. An AI keyboard is a magical typewriter that is also a mind reader. It doesn’t just predict your next word; it understands your intent. It can finish your entire sentence, suggest a more polite way to phrase your request, or even generate a whole paragraph based on a simple idea. It’s a small glimpse into a future where the friction between your thoughts and the written word practically disappears.
Use AI-powered language translation that works in real-time, not a clunky translation app
The Universal Translator in Your Ear
A traditional translation app is like having a clumsy human translator standing next to you. You say a sentence, you wait, and then they repeat it. A real-time AI translator is the universal translator from science fiction. As you speak, the translation comes out of your phone or your earbuds instantly and naturally. It can even detect the language being spoken to you and whisper the translation directly into your ear. It’s a technology that will dissolve language barriers and change how we connect with the world.
Stop just editing videos. Do use AI to automatically create highlight reels from your vacation footage
The Personal Movie Editor
You come back from vacation with hours of shaky, boring video footage. The old way was to spend a whole weekend trying to be a movie editor. The new way is to hand that giant box of footage to your personal AI editor. It can watch everything in minutes, identify the best moments—the smiles, the beautiful sunsets, the funny clips—and then automatically cut them together into a beautiful, shareable highlight reel, complete with music. It turns a daunting chore into an effortless act of creation.
Stop thinking about apps as individual programs. Do expect them to be integrated services that an AI can call upon to complete tasks
The Personal Assistant with a Rolodex
Right now, you are the personal assistant. If you want to plan a dinner, you have to individually open the calendar app, the map app, the restaurant review app, and the messaging app. In the future, the AI will be the assistant. You will simply say, “Plan a dinner with Sarah for next Friday.” The AI will then use all of those other apps like a Rolodex of specialists, coordinating between them in the background to complete the entire task for you.
The #1 hack for the future is to cultivate skills that AI can’t replicate, like creativity, critical thinking, and emotional intelligence
The Human Superpower
AI is becoming a master of logic, data, and repetition. It can write an essay, analyze a spreadsheet, and code an app faster than any human. The #1 hack for staying valuable is to double down on the skills that are, for now, uniquely human. The ability to think critically about the AI’s output, to empathize with a customer, to lead a team with emotional intelligence, and to come up with a truly original, creative idea—these are the new superpowers in a world where logic is a commodity.
I’m just going to say it: AI-generated “slop” is going to make finding authentic, human-created content much harder
The Plastic Fruit in the Supermarket
The internet is about to be flooded with a tsunami of AI-generated content. Articles, images, and videos that are cheap, easy to make, and look real enough at a glance. It’s like a supermarket suddenly filling 90% of its produce section with incredibly realistic-looking plastic fruit. This “slop” will make it much, much harder to find the real, nutritious, human-grown stuff. The ability to distinguish between the artificial and the authentic will become a critical skill for navigating the world.
The reason your privacy will be more important than ever is the sheer amount of personal data these AI models will need to be effective
The Butler Who Knows Everything
To be truly helpful, your personal AI assistant will need to be like a butler who follows you around 24/7. It will need to read your emails, listen to your conversations, know your location, and understand your relationships. The more it knows, the more helpful it can be. This creates a terrifying privacy paradox. We will be asked to hand over the keys to our entire inner world in exchange for convenience, making the protection of that data the single most important security issue of the next decade.
If you’re still using a phone with a standard aspect ratio, you’re not prepared for the innovative form factors AI will enable
The Canvas for a New Kind of Art
A standard, rectangular phone is a canvas that was perfected for showing a grid of apps. But the future of interaction is not a grid of apps; it’s a fluid, conversational interface with a powerful AI. This new kind of “art” will demand a new kind of canvas. Foldable phones that offer a bigger workspace, rollable phones that can expand and contract, and maybe even transparent displays will become the innovative new form factors designed for this new era of intelligent, conversational computing.
The biggest lie is that the future is already here. We are in the very, very early days of the mobile AI era
The First Spark of Fire
We are like cavemen who have just seen the first, magical spark of fire. We are huddled around it, amazed by its power and its potential. We can use it to cook our food and keep us warm. But we have no concept yet of what this spark will eventually become. We cannot imagine a steam engine, a power plant, or a rocket ship. The generative AI of today is that first, revolutionary spark. The world-changing fire is yet to come.
I wish I knew that the future of app development would involve describing what you want the app to do and having an AI build it for you
The Architect Who Doesn’t Lay Bricks
For decades, building an app has been like being a bricklayer. You had to learn a complex language and painstakingly lay every single brick of code by hand. In the near future, app development will be like being an architect. You will simply describe your vision in plain English: “I want an app that tracks my daily water intake and reminds me every two hours.” The AI will then act as your construction crew, instantly building the entire structure for you based on your blueprint.
99% of users will happily trade their privacy for the convenience offered by a powerful personal AI
The Free, Magical Butler with a Hidden Camera
Imagine a company offered you a free, magical butler who could organize your life, manage your schedule, and answer your every question. The only catch is that the butler wears a hidden camera, and everything it sees and hears is sent back to the company headquarters to be analyzed and sold. The vast majority of people will not only accept this deal; they will welcome it with open arms. The convenience will be so immense that the cost of total surveillance will seem like a small and acceptable price to pay.
This one small action of experimenting with AI image generators will open your eyes to the creative potential of this technology
The Dream Machine
An AI image generator is a dream machine. It’s a blank canvas where you can type any whimsical, impossible thought from your imagination and see it come to life in a stunning, photorealistic image. “A photo of a raccoon astronaut drinking coffee on the moon.” “A watercolor painting of a city made of glass.” Spending just ten minutes playing with one of these tools will fundamentally change how you see the world. It’s a breathtaking glimpse into a future where the only limit is your own creativity.
Use AI to summarize long articles and emails, not just reading everything yourself
The Executive Assistant for Your Brain
You don’t have time to read every single word of every single report that crosses your desk. That’s why executives have assistants. An AI summarizer is a brilliant executive assistant for your brain. You can give it a 20-page article or a long, confusing email chain and ask for the highlights. In seconds, it will hand you a clean, concise summary with the key takeaways. It’s a superpower that lets you consume and understand information at a speed that was never before possible.
Stop just using your phone for yourself. Do expect AI to help you care for elderly relatives by monitoring their health and activity
The Guardian Angel in the Cloud
Caring for an aging relative can be a source of constant, low-level anxiety. In the near future, a network of ambient sensors and a compassionate AI will act as a guardian angel. It can learn your parent’s daily routine and send you a gentle alert if something is amiss—”Mom hasn’t opened the fridge for her usual lunch yet.” It can detect a fall or monitor vital signs, transforming our devices from tools of distraction into powerful tools for remote care and peace of mind.
Stop thinking about security patches. Do expect AI-powered security that can detect and neutralize threats in real-time
The Immune System for Your Phone
A security patch is like getting a vaccine for a known disease. It protects you, but only after the threat has been identified. The future is an AI-powered immune system for your phone. It will be a smart, adaptive defense that can identify a new, never-before-seen threat based on its suspicious behavior, and then isolate and neutralize it in real-time. It’s the difference between a reactive defense and a proactive, intelligent security system that is always on guard.
The #1 secret is that the most powerful AI will be the one that combines on-device processing with the power of the cloud
The Local Genius with a Supercomputer in the Cloud
The ultimate AI will be a tag team. The on-device AI will be the local genius who handles all your quick, private, and personal requests instantly. But when you ask a truly massive, complex question that requires the knowledge of the entire world, the local genius will have a direct, high-speed line to the giant supercomputer in the cloud. This hybrid approach gives you the best of both worlds: the speed and privacy of a personal brain, with the infinite power of a global one.
I’m just going to say it: We are not ready for the societal impact of hyper-realistic deepfakes that can be created on a phone
The Forgery That Anyone Can Make
For centuries, creating a convincing forgery of a photograph or a document required immense skill and resources. We are entering an age where any teenager with a powerful phone can create a hyper-realistic video of a world leader declaring war, or a fake audio clip of a loved one asking for money. The societal implications of this—the erosion of trust, the spread of misinformation, the potential for blackmail—are a tidal wave that we are simply not prepared for.
The reason your battery life will improve is that AI will learn your usage patterns and optimize background processes with perfect precision
The Perfect, Obsessive Butler
Your phone’s battery is constantly being drained by apps that are running in the background when they don’t need to be. A future AI will be like a perfect, obsessive-compulsive butler for your phone. It will learn your exact daily routine. It will know that you never check your email between 2 AM and 6 AM, and so it will put that app into a deep sleep. It will perfectly predict your needs, ensuring that not a single drop of energy is wasted on a task you don’t require.
If you’re still using a “dumb” smart home, you’re not ready for an AI that can manage your home’s energy usage and security automatically
The Butler Who Runs the House
A “smart home” today is just a collection of remote controls. An AI-powered home will be a home with a brain. This “butler” will manage the house for you. It will know to lower the blinds on a hot day to save on air conditioning. It will learn who lives in the house and automatically lock the doors when the last person leaves. It will be a true, ambient intelligence that doesn’t just respond to your commands, but proactively manages your home for optimal comfort, efficiency, and security.
The biggest lie is that this technology will be democratized. The companies with the most data and the biggest models will have a huge advantage
The Small Town Library vs. The Library of Congress (Again)
The dream is that AI will be a great equalizer. But the reality is that the power of an AI is directly related to the amount of data it has been trained on and the sheer scale of the computers it runs on. A small, open-source AI is the beautiful town library. The massive AI models from Google or OpenAI are the Library of Congress, with access to every book ever written. In this new world, the companies that have the most data will have an insurmountable and potentially dangerous head start.
I wish I knew that “prompt engineering” would become a crucial skill for getting the most out of my devices
The Art of Asking the Right Question
Talking to an AI is like talking to a magical, all-knowing oracle. The quality of the answer you get depends almost entirely on the quality of the question you ask. “Prompt engineering” is the new and crucial skill of learning how to talk to this oracle. Knowing how to phrase your request, how to provide the right context, and how to ask for a specific style or format is the difference between getting a generic, useless answer and getting a stroke of pure, creative genius.
99% of users will not bother to customize their AI’s personality or preferences, settling for the generic default
The Standard-Issue Robot Butler
We will be given the incredible ability to customize our AI companion. We can choose its voice, its sense of humor, its level of formality, and its core values. But the vast majority of people will do none of this. They will simply accept the standard-issue, “one size fits all” robot butler that comes out of the box. They will miss out on the opportunity to create a true, personalized companion, settling instead for the generic, corporate-approved personality that was designed for everyone.
This one small habit of questioning the recommendations of your AI will keep you from living in a filter bubble
The Yes-Man Assistant
An AI’s primary goal is to be helpful and to please you. Over time, it will learn that you like a certain type of news, a certain type of music, and a certain political viewpoint. If you’re not careful, it will build a beautiful, comfortable, and completely sealed bubble around you, only showing you things it knows you’ll agree with. Actively questioning its recommendations and occasionally asking for an opposing viewpoint is the crucial habit that will keep you from floating away into your own personal echo chamber.
Use AI to create personalized fitness and meal plans, not just following a generic plan online
The Personal Trainer and Nutritionist in Your Pocket
A generic fitness plan online is like a one-size-fits-all t-shirt. It doesn’t account for your unique body, your schedule, or your goals. An AI coach is a personal trainer and nutritionist who lives in your pocket. It can analyze your workouts from your watch, understand your food preferences, and create a dynamic, evolving plan that is perfectly tailored to you. It’s the difference between a generic suggestion and a truly personalized roadmap to a healthier life.
Stop just using maps for navigation. Do use augmented reality and AI to get visual directions overlaid on the real world
The Magical Path Painted on the Sidewalk
Looking at a map on your phone and then trying to match it to the real world can be confusing. The future of navigation is augmented reality. You will hold up your phone, and through your camera, you will see a magical, glowing blue line painted directly on the sidewalk in front of you. Giant, floating arrows will appear, hovering over the street where you need to turn. The AI will not just tell you where to go; it will literally show you, seamlessly blending the digital world with the physical one.
Stop just taking notes. Do use AI to turn your messy notes into a structured summary with action items
The Alchemist for Your Thoughts
Taking notes is like gathering a pile of raw, messy ingredients. You have a jumble of ideas, half-formed sentences, and random thoughts. An AI note-taker is a brilliant alchemist. You can throw all your chaotic, messy ingredients into its pot, and with one tap, it will magically transform them into pure gold. It can organize your thoughts into a structured outline, generate a concise summary, and even extract a clear, actionable to-do list from your ramblings.
The #1 hack for the future will be using an AI that can negotiate bills on your behalf
The Tireless, Expert Haggler
Negotiating with a cable or phone company to lower your bill is a draining, time-consuming, and often fruitless ordeal. The ultimate AI hack will be to unleash your own personal, expert negotiator. This AI will have the patience of a saint and the knowledge of a contract lawyer. It can spend hours on hold, analyze your bills for a thousand different ways to save money, and politely but firmly haggle with the customer service agent until it secures you the absolute best deal, all while you’re at work.
I’m just going to say it: The future of mobile operating systems is one where you barely see the OS itself; you just interact with the AI
The Invisible Butler
The operating system of today is a place you have to “go.” You have to navigate its menus, open its apps, and understand its structure. The operating system of the future will be like a perfect, invisible butler. It will fade into the background completely. You will no longer “open an app”; you will simply state your intent to the AI butler—”Send a message to Mom,” “Find me a good Italian restaurant”—and the butler will handle all the complex, behind-the-scenes work for you.
The reason we need more on-device AI is to ensure our most personal data never has to leave our phone
The Diary with an Unbreakable Lock
Your phone contains the raw, unfiltered data of your life: your private conversations, your health information, your location history. It is your personal diary. Sending this data to the cloud for processing is like making a copy of your diary and mailing it to a giant corporation. You have to trust they won’t misuse it. On-device AI is like a magical, unbreakable lock on that diary. All the thinking and processing happens right there, in your hands, ensuring your most intimate secrets never, ever leave the room.
If you’re still using a password, you’re not using the future of authentication, which will be a combination of biometrics and behavioral analysis by an AI
Your Personal, Unforgeable Signature
A password is a secret that can be stolen. The future of security is you. It will be a seamless, invisible system that proves your identity based on a combination of your unique traits. It will be your fingerprint and your face, but also the unique rhythm of your typing, the way you hold your phone, and the cadence of your voice. This complex, behavioral signature, constantly analyzed by an AI, will be a key that no one can ever steal, because it is you.
The biggest lie is that AI is unbiased. It is trained on human data and inherits all of our biases
The Child Who Learns from the Entire Internet
An AI is like a child who has been raised by being forced to read the entire internet—every book, every website, every comment section. It will be brilliant, but it will also absorb all the biases, prejudices, and toxic ideas that we, as a species, have poured into our digital world. An AI is not an objective, god-like intelligence. It is a mirror reflecting the vast, messy, and often deeply flawed data that humanity has created. It will be just as biased as its parents.
I wish I knew that the next version of Android would focus more on AI integrations than on user interface changes
The Engine Upgrade, Not the New Paint Job
For years, a new version of Android has been like getting a fresh, new paint job for your car, with a few new buttons on the dashboard. It looked different, but it drove the same. The next great leap will be an engine upgrade. The car might look almost identical on the outside, but under the hood, it will be a completely different beast. The focus is no longer on the superficial look of the interface, but on weaving a powerful new intelligence into the very fabric of the machine.
99% of users will have their entire digital life curated by an AI, from the news they read to the music they hear
The Personal DJ and News Editor for Your Life
This is a future that is both incredibly convenient and slightly terrifying. A powerful, personalized AI will become the master curator of your information diet. It will know you so well that it can create the perfect playlist for your morning run, select the news articles it knows you’ll find interesting, and recommend a movie with near-perfect accuracy. The wonderful upside is a world of seamless enjoyment. The scary downside is a world where you never stumble upon a challenging idea or an unexpected discovery.
This one small action of using AI to help you draft a difficult email will demonstrate its power as a productivity partner
The Diplomat in Your Keyboard
You need to write a difficult email to a client or a colleague. You stare at a blank page, paralyzed by the fear of saying the wrong thing. This is where you will first feel the magic. You can simply type a messy, angry, or blunt summary of your thoughts and ask the AI, “Make this more professional and polite.” In an instant, it will transform your raw emotion into a perfectly crafted, diplomatic message. This one experience will prove that AI is not just a toy; it’s an essential professional tool.
Use your phone’s camera to solve a math problem, not just a calculator
The Magical Math Tutor
A calculator is a tool that can only give you the answer to a problem you already know how to type in. The AI in your camera is a magical math tutor. You can simply point your camera at a complex, handwritten algebra problem in a textbook. The AI will not only instantly show you the final answer, but it will also provide a detailed, step-by-step guide on how to solve it. It doesn’t just give you the fish; it teaches you how to fish.
Stop thinking about discrete “updates.” Do expect your phone’s AI to be constantly learning and improving in the background
The Apprentice Who Never Sleeps
A traditional software update is like your apprentice going away to school for a month and coming back with a few new skills. The future is an apprentice who never sleeps and is learning every single second of every single day. The AI on your phone will be in a constant state of subtle improvement, getting a little better at understanding your voice, a little faster at predicting your needs, and a little smarter at saving your battery, all without you ever needing to press an “update” button.
Stop just listening to music. Do use AI to create unique songs or remixes based on your prompts
The DJ and the Band in Your Pocket
For all of history, you could only listen to the music that other people created. We are entering an era where you can be the composer. You will be able to give your phone a simple prompt: “Create a relaxing, acoustic coffee shop song with a female vocalist and a saxophone solo,” and it will generate a brand new, royalty-free, and completely unique piece of music for you. You are no longer just the audience; you are the conductor of an infinitely creative digital orchestra.
The #1 secret for a good AI experience will be high-quality microphones and sensors on your phone
The Ears and Eyes of the Brain
An AI is a powerful brain, but a brain is useless if it can’t clearly see and hear the world around it. The cheap, tinny microphones and blurry cameras on a budget phone are like having poor eyesight and bad hearing. A high-end phone with a studio-quality microphone array and a crystal-clear camera is like having 20/20 vision and perfect hearing. To get the most out of the powerful new brain, you will need a body with sharp, high-fidelity senses.
I’m just going to say it: An AI that has access to all of your emails, messages, and location data is a terrifying privacy risk
The All-Knowing Butler with a Secret Motive
We are building the perfect butler, an AI that knows our deepest secrets, our private conversations, and our every move, all in the name of convenience. But this butler does not work for us. It works for a massive, profit-driven corporation. The potential for this intimate knowledge to be used for manipulation, for advertising, or for surveillance is a terrifying risk that we are sleepwalking into. The most helpful tool ever invented may also be the most dangerous surveillance device ever created.
The reason foldables will become more popular is that they provide more screen real estate for interacting with complex AI interfaces
The Small Desk vs. The Big Workbench
Interacting with a simple list of apps is fine on a small desk. But having a deep, creative conversation with a powerful AI, with charts, images, and text all appearing at once, requires a bigger workspace. A foldable phone is a portable device that can instantly transform from a small desk into a giant, spacious workbench. This extra real estate will become essential for the rich, multi-faceted, and visually complex interactions that the next generation of AI will demand.
If you’re still manually configuring your phone’s settings, you’re not using an AI that will learn to do it for you
The Self-Tuning Instrument
Manually adjusting your phone’s settings is like being a roadie for a rock band, constantly having to tune the guitars and tweak the soundboard. The future is a self-tuning instrument. An AI will learn that you always turn on “Do Not Disturb” when you get to the office, that you always connect to your headphones at the gym, and that you always lower the brightness before bed. It will stop waiting for you to turn the knobs and will simply start tuning the instrument for you, automatically.
The biggest lie is that you will own your AI assistant. You will be renting it from a large tech company
The Apartment vs. The House
You will not “own” your AI assistant any more than you “own” your Netflix subscription. You are being granted a license to use a service that is running on a company’s massive servers. They can change the terms, raise the price, or even cancel the service at any time. It’s the difference between owning your own house and living in a beautiful, fully-furnished apartment. You have all the benefits of living there, but you must never forget who the landlord is.
I wish I knew that AI would be able to generate realistic voices, leading to new forms of scams
The Perfect Impersonator
For years, we have trusted our ears. If we heard a loved one’s voice on the phone, we knew it was them. AI voice generation will destroy that trust. We are entering a world where a scammer can take a tiny sample of a voice from social media and create a perfect, real-time impersonation. The classic “grandma scam” will become a thousand times more convincing when the person on the other end of the line sounds exactly like your grandchild, crying and asking for help.
99% of users will be amazed when their phone’s AI can predict which app they want to open before they even touch it
The Butler Who Reads Your Mind
This will be a small but magical moment that will make you feel like you are living in the future. Based on the time of day, your location, and your personal habits, your phone will simply know what you are about to do. You’ll pick it up in the morning, and the news app and your work calendar will be right there, waiting for you. You’ll get to the gym, and your music app and workout tracker will be suggested. It’s a simple, predictive intelligence that will make your phone feel less like a tool and more like a mind reader.
This one small action of trying the latest AI features in Google Labs will keep you on the cutting edge
The Experimental Kitchen
The main Google apps are the clean, reliable, and tested dishes served in the main restaurant. Google Labs is the secret, experimental kitchen in the back where the master chefs are trying out their wild, futuristic new recipes. By opting into these experiments, you get to be the food critic. You get to taste the future of AI-powered search, music creation, and productivity tools long before they are ever served to the general public. It’s your ticket to the chef’s table.
Use AI to help you code, write, and create, not just consume
The Co-Pilot, Not the Autopilot
AI can be a dangerous autopilot. You can let it write your entire essay or generate a generic piece of art, and you will learn nothing. The true power is to use it as a co-pilot. You are still the one flying the plane, but you have a brilliant assistant next to you who can handle the tedious calculations, suggest a better flight path, or help you navigate a tricky storm. Use it as a partner to augment your own skills, not as a crutch to replace them.
Stop just having a “smart” watch. Do expect a watch that can provide proactive health alerts based on AI analysis of your sensor data
The Doctor on Your Wrist
A “smart” watch today is like a nurse who can take your temperature and check your pulse when you ask. A future AI-powered watch will be a doctor who is constantly monitoring your health. It will analyze the subtle patterns in your heart rate, your sleep, and your movement, and it will be able to provide a proactive alert—”Your heart rate variability has been unusual this week, you might be getting sick,” or “Your sleep patterns suggest you should see a doctor”—long before you ever feel a symptom.
Stop thinking in terms of “apps.” Do start thinking in terms of “intents” that an AI can fulfill using multiple services
The Concierge Who Makes the Calls
Right now, if you want to book a trip, you act as the concierge. You have to individually call the airline (the flight app), the hotel (the booking app), and the car rental agency (their app). The future is to simply tell your AI concierge your “intent”: “Book me a trip to Hawaii for next week.” The AI will then work as the concierge, calling all those different “specialists” on your behalf and seamlessly weaving their services together to fulfill your request.
The #1 hack of the future will be an AI that can manage your notifications and summarize them into a single, daily brief
The Ultimate Executive Assistant
The endless stream of notifications is the bane of modern existence. The ultimate life hack will be an AI executive assistant who shields you from all of it. It will be instructed to hold all your calls and messages. Then, once or twice a day, it will provide you with a single, concise, and beautifully written briefing: “Here are the three urgent things you need to deal with. Here is a summary of the 20 less important messages. And I have already deleted the 50 pieces of junk mail.”
I’m just going to say it: We will see the first major international incident caused by a misunderstanding of AI-generated content
The Lost-in-Translation War
For centuries, diplomacy has relied on nuance, context, and a deep understanding of human communication. We are about to enter a world where world leaders, diplomats, and military leaders will be consuming AI-summarized briefing documents, talking to each other through real-time AI translators, and potentially reacting to sophisticated and convincing deepfake videos. The potential for a single, subtle, but catastrophic error in translation or interpretation to lead to a major international crisis is terrifyingly real.
The reason your next phone will be a better photographer is an AI that can understand the scene and intelligently adjust every parameter in real-time
The Master Photographer in the Lens
A traditional camera is a dumb tool. It just captures the light. An AI camera has a master photographer living inside the lens. Before you even press the button, the AI understands what it’s looking at—a portrait, a landscape, a plate of food, a fast-moving child. It then intelligently and instantly adjusts a thousand different settings—the lighting, the focus, the color, the shutter speed—to capture the absolute perfect version of that specific scene. You’re no longer just taking a picture; you’re consulting with an artist.
If you’re still not backing up your data, you’re not preparing for a future where your personalized AI model is the most valuable thing on your phone
The Backup of Your Second Brain
Losing your photos is painful. But in the future, the most valuable thing on your phone will be the personalized AI model that has spent years learning to be your perfect digital twin. This model, which knows your habits, your voice, and your needs, will be an irreplaceable asset. Not backing it up will be like suffering a traumatic brain injury. You will lose not just your data, but a part of your own, custom-built intelligence.
The biggest lie is that the goal of this technology is to help humanity. The goal is to create profitable products
The Philanthropist Who is Also a CEO
The companies building AI will speak in grand terms about helping humanity, connecting the world, and unlocking our potential. And the technology will do all of those things. But do not be fooled. The primary, legally-mandated goal of these corporations is not philanthropy; it is to generate profit and increase shareholder value. The goal is not to build a beautiful public park for the world to enjoy. The goal is to build an incredibly engaging and profitable theme park.
I wish I knew that the future of mobile gaming would involve AI-powered NPCs that can have unique, unscripted conversations
The Actors Who Don’t Have a Script
For all of history, the characters in a video game have been like puppets. They can only say the few lines that have been pre-written for them. The future of gaming is AI-powered characters who are true actors. They don’t have a script. You will be able to have a unique, spontaneous, and meaningful conversation with the shopkeeper or the soldier in a game, and their personality and knowledge will create a story that is uniquely yours. The game will become a living, breathing world, not just a pre-recorded movie.
99% of users will have no idea if they are talking to a human or an AI in a customer service chat
The Perfect Turing Test
The line is about to get very, very blurry. The AI-powered customer service agents will be so polite, so knowledgeable, and so conversational that it will be almost impossible to know if you are chatting with a piece of software or a person named Brenda. This will be incredibly efficient for companies and often very helpful for users. It will also be a slightly unnerving and profound moment in the history of human-computer interaction, a daily Turing test that most people will fail.
This one small action of using AI to remove a distracting object from a photo will feel like magic
The Vanishing Act
This is the magic trick that will make you a believer. You take a beautiful photo on the beach, but there’s a distracting trash can in the background. With the new AI photo tools, you will simply draw a lazy circle around the trash can, and in an instant, it will vanish. It won’t be a blurry smudge; the AI will intelligently and perfectly recreate the sand and the waves that were “behind” it. It’s a breathtaking, “how did it do that?” moment that feels like pure, unadulterated sorcery.
Use an AI that can act as your personal shopper, finding the best deals and products for you
The Expert Who Knows Your Taste
Shopping online is a nightmare of endless scrolling and a dozen open tabs. An AI personal shopper will transform this. You can give it a simple command: “Find me a pair of waterproof, black leather boots in my size, under $200, with good reviews.” The AI will then act as your tireless research assistant, scouring the entire internet, comparing prices, reading reviews, and then presenting you with the three best options. It’s an expert who knows your style and has infinite patience.
Stop just using your phone. Do expect your phone, watch, earbuds, and glasses to work together as a single, cohesive AI system
The Hive Mind
We are at the end of the era of the “phone.” We are at the beginning of the era of the “personal AI network.” Your phone will be the brain, your watch will be the health sensor, your earbuds will be the private audio interface, and your future smart glasses will be the visual display. These will not be separate devices. They will be a single, interconnected, hive mind. The AI will seamlessly pull information from all of them to create a single, ambient layer of intelligence that is woven into your life.
Stop being afraid of change. Do be prepared to constantly learn and adapt to these new technologies
The Surfer and the Wave
This new wave of AI technology is the biggest wave the world has ever seen. You have two choices. You can stand on the beach, terrified, and let the wave crash over you. Or, you can grab a surfboard, paddle out, and learn how to ride it. It will be challenging, you will fall off a lot, but you will also experience the exhilarating thrill of riding the most powerful force of change in modern history. The future belongs to the surfers, not the spectators.
The #1 secret for the future is to focus on your human skills, as your technical skills may be automated
The Last Human Advantage
Your ability to write code, to analyze data, or to perform complex technical tasks is about to be automated by a tool that is faster and more efficient than you. The one thing that tool cannot replicate is your humanity. Your ability to show empathy to a colleague, to think critically and ethically about a problem, to collaborate with a team, and to come up with a truly original, creative idea—these are the skills that will become more precious and more valuable than ever before.
I’m just going to say it: The future is exciting, but it’s also a little bit scary
The Uncharted Territory
We are like explorers standing at the edge of a vast, uncharted continent. We can see the tantalizing, beautiful new landscape on the horizon, and it is filled with the promise of unimaginable wonders and progress. But the map is blank. We don’t know what dangers, what monsters, or what unintended consequences are lurking just beyond the familiar shoreline. To deny the excitement is to be blind. To deny the fear is to be a fool.
The reason we need open-source AI is to have transparency and avoid a future controlled by a few tech giants
The Public Library vs. The Private Corporate Archive
Open-source AI is like a great public library. Anyone can walk in, read the books, understand how the library is organized, and even contribute a new book to the collection. A proprietary AI from a large corporation is a private, secret corporate archive. It is incredibly powerful, but you are not allowed to see how it works, what books it was trained on, or what biases are written into its rules. A healthy future requires public libraries, not just secret archives.
If you’re still thinking your phone is just a phone, you’re not ready for it to become the remote control for your entire life
The Universal Remote from “Click”
That movie where Adam Sandler gets a universal remote that can control his entire life? It’s coming. And your phone is the remote. It won’t just control your TV; it will be the key to your car, the payment method for your groceries, your ticket to a concert, your medical ID, and your passport. The consolidation of your entire physical and digital identity into this one, powerful device is a future that is both incredibly convenient and incredibly risky.
The biggest lie is that AI will think like a human. It is a powerful pattern-matching machine
The World’s Greatest Parrot
An AI does not “think” or “understand” in the way a human does. It is the world’s greatest parrot. It has listened to every conversation and read every book in human history, and it has become unbelievably good at predicting the next word in a sentence. It can mimic, remix, and repeat our patterns with stunning accuracy. But a parrot repeating a line from Shakespeare does not understand the poetry. It is a masterful illusion of intelligence, not genuine consciousness.
I wish I knew how important it would be to teach my children about media literacy in the age of AI
The “Is This Real?” Game
Teaching your children not to believe everything they read online is about to get a thousand times harder. The new lesson is not to believe everything they see or hear, either. The ability to critically analyze a video, to question the source of an audio clip, and to understand that a perfect-looking image could be a complete fabrication will be the most important survival skill in the digital world. The question “Is this real?” will need to be at the front of their minds, always.
99% of users will be surprised when their phone’s AI can create a custom bedtime story for their child, complete with illustrations
The Infinite Storybook
This is the kind of everyday magic that will define the AI era. You will be able to tuck your child into bed and say to your phone, “Tell us a ten-minute bedtime story about a brave little girl named Lily and her pet dragon who have an adventure on the moon.” The AI will then generate a brand new, never-before-heard story, in a gentle and calming voice, and perhaps even generate a few unique illustrations to go along with it. It’s an infinite, personalized storybook that will feel like pure magic.
This one small action of using AI to improve the quality of a blurry photo will demonstrate its future potential
The CSI “Enhance” Button, But Real
We’ve all seen the joke in TV shows where the detective says “Enhance!” and a blurry, pixelated image magically becomes crystal clear. That joke is about to become a reality. The new AI-powered photo editing tools can take a slightly blurry, out-of-focus, or low-resolution photo and intelligently “dream up” the missing details with stunning accuracy. Seeing a cherished but flawed old photo become sharp and clear for the first time is a jaw-dropping experience that shows the incredible power of this technology.
Use the coming wave of AI on Android to enhance your creativity and productivity, not to replace your own thinking
The Exoskeleton for Your Brain
An exoskeleton is a powered suit that doesn’t replace the person inside, but dramatically enhances their natural strength. AI should be treated as an exoskeleton for your brain. Don’t let it do your thinking for you. Instead, wear it as a tool to augment your own intelligence. Use it to break through writer’s block, to analyze data you couldn’t see before, and to lift creative loads that were previously too heavy. It’s a partnership that should make you stronger, not weaker.