AI will move beyond gimmickry to deliver real value for consumers and industry
Consumer excitement about generative AI has been mixed with concerns over its potential to displace human creativity by replacing or undermining artists while exploiting their work. Omdia will continue to examine the reality of such risks, while identifying more positive outcomes for creators and consumers and therefore for the wider consumer technologies and services market.
With key smartphone and PC ecosystem players all in on AI, product availability is ramping up quickly. AI-capable devices will account for over one in three smartphones shipped in 2025. That number will be even higher for PCs at nearly two in five.For smartphone and PC players, AI offers opportunities to enhance their premium offerings and unlock new revenue streams. In 2025, expect device manufacturers, chipset vendors, and operating system (OS) vendors to further democratize AI capabilities in their devices to drive user adoption.The market’s confidence seems justified. An Omdia survey of 3,000 consumers in the US, the UK, and China in October found that nearly half (48%) identified AI as a must-have or important inclusion for their next product choice.However, questions remain about how clear the benefits are to end-users. Our research also shows consumer opinions vary greatly on the value they see in AI and how they want to “pay” for it, whether through device prices, subscriptions, or advertising.Key to success in 2025 will be understanding which AI capabilities to invest in and how to market those effectively to various groups of consumers.
All major media sectors are facing financial challenges of one sort or another. In 2025, companies throughout the entertainment industry will look to AI to help address those difficulties and explore new creative opportunities, albeit tentatively.In games, AI offers opportunities to reduce increasingly long and costly development cycles. We expect at least one landmark title that leverages AI-powered tools to produce unexpectedly impressive results relative to its budget.Music companies, meanwhile, will move on from waiting for legal cases to be heard and laws to be passed to embrace “ethical AI” by engaging in strategic partnerships with approved specialist technology providers.AI will help TV shows and movies travel further and faster through the automation of dubbing, subtitling, and various behind-the-scenes tasks.Many quarters of the media industry will remain wary of more creative applications, but we share Netflix’s optimism that there will be a bigger business in making content 10% better than just 50% cheaper.That’s not to say there won’t be missteps. There will be salutary cases of media and maverick operators that overstretch the limits of AI – whether technically, commercially, or ethically – and backfire.
For more emergence of AI in consumer industry trends, visit:
2025 Trends to Watch: Consumer Platforms and AI
2025 Trends to Watch: Asian Video Games
2025 Trends to Watch: Cinema & Movies
2025 Trends to Watch: Next Steps in Cinema's Evolution
2025 Trends to Watch: Music
2025 Trends to Watch: Connected Consumers