Despite exponential advances for Galaxy S26 Ultra and iPhone 18, people still don’t care about their biggest feature

The smartphone industry — led by giants like Samsung, Apple, Google, Xiaomi, Oppo, and others — is trying very hard to make modern AI features a major selling factor. However, despite significant advances in AI for upcoming flagship phones like the Galaxy S26 Ultra and the iPhone 18, you just don’t care.

Very few consumers care about AI

In a recent poll that we held when talking about exclusive features on Galaxy S26 Ultra, most of you said that you could not care less about AI.

Less than 18 percent of voters want the latest and greatest AI features and tools on their phones. Almost 60 percent of you just outright said that you don’t care about AI on smartphones. And 24 percent of you said that, though you were planning on getting an S26 Ultra, it wasn’t because of its powerful AI tool set. Which camp do you fall into?

A major disconnect between companies and users

The results of this poll, and of similar discussions in the past, show a clear and major disconnect between phone manufacturers and their consumer base. These companies are proudly boasting about new AI capabilities each year, but no one cares. They’re investing billions into something that most of you never asked for.

AI on the Galaxy S26 Ultra will undoubtedly be quite powerful, especially given that it will have exclusive features, which probably require the extra processing power. Meanwhile, after the failure of Apple Intelligence, the iPhone maker has decided to rely on Google’s flagship AI model Gemini, just like Samsung.

Yet, it seems like no one is actually looking forward to these AI features next year.

AI is cool, but you can’t force it on people

I, personally, find modern AI models fascinating. Calling them word generators or predictors is, in my opinion, doing a great disservice to what they really are. But I can absolutely understand everyone’s hesitancy to adopt AI on their phones.

New features, especially ones that are suddenly forced upon users, are seldom accepted graciously. To add salt to the wound, many current AI tools on smartphones tend to focus on doing tasks that most users don’t really need help with, like writing a response email.

AI is here to stay, and I still think that it will be accepted a lot more once it becomes more useful. But, for now, it seems like it’s a money pit that isn’t giving phone makers any returns, and is just actively annoying their user bases.