While artificial intelligence has juiced the marketing departments of smartphone makers like Apple and Samsung, it isn’t generating much enthusiasm among users, according to a survey released Monday by a used electronics selling site.
The survey by SellCell of more than 2,000 iPhone and Samsung users found that 73% of iPhone and 87% of Samsung users said that the AI features on their phones added little to no value to their smartphone experience.
Users’ low opinion of the AI on their phones reflects confusion in the market. “While companies are saying ‘now with AI’ or ‘AI included,’ they’re not telling users what to do with it,” said HP Newquist, executive director of The Relayer Group, a business consulting firm in New York City.
“They’re telling users, you now have access to AI. You can now use AI,” he told TechNewsWorld. “They’re just saying, here it is. You’ve got it now. And quite frankly, that’s not a compelling reason to use AI.”
“We’re getting AI thrust at us, and I think consumers are completely nonplussed by that,” he observed.
“We’re finding the same exact thing in corporate America,” he continued. “They’re getting told, you need to use generative AI. You need to use agentic AI. But they’re not being told how specifically it can benefit them. Until that’s made clear both at the consumer and the corporate level, you are going to have a fairly tepid response from first-time users.”
AI Not Well Understood
Privacy concerns may be dampening enthusiasm about AI among iPhone users, contended Mark N. Vena, president and principal analyst at SmartTech Research in Las Vegas. “Apple users have high expectations for data protection and skepticism about whether the features offer meaningful improvements beyond what competitors already provide,” he told TechNewsWorld.
“Limited compatibility, with AI features likely restricted to newer iPhone models, may also alienate users of older devices,” he added.
On the Samsung side of things, Vena continued, Galaxy AI lacks differentiation from other Android-based AI offerings, which may reduce excitement. “Samsung’s features might appear incremental rather than groundbreaking.”
“Additionally, inconsistent user experiences with Samsung’s software and AI across devices could contribute to lower enthusiasm, compared to the more tightly integrated Apple ecosystem,” he said.
Greg Sterling, co-founder of Near Media, a market research firm in San Francisco, asserted that one of the central problems with Apple Intelligence is that it’s not well explained or well understood by the public. “Apple needs to do more to educate people about what the features are and when they will be available,” he told TechNewsWorld.
Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a technology advisory firm in San Jose, Calif., agreed. “AI integration in smartphones is new and not well understood by the average user,” he told TechNewsWorld. “Google and Apple need to do more tutorial-like posts that show users the new AI features and how to use them.”
“AI requires you to learn how to prompt, and it’s not easy,” added Rob Enderle, president and principal analyst at the Enderle Group, an advisory services firm in Bend, Ore.
“So we have a lot of training in front of us with regard to users knowing how to use this stuff,” he told TechNewsWorld. “I would expect the survey to be bad this early simply because Apple Intelligence hasn’t been available for very long, and people just don’t know how to use it yet.”
Long Rollout Dampens Exuberance
Sterling added that the multiple features clustered under the rubric Apple Intelligence are rolling out incrementally over time, so users haven’t really seen the concrete benefits yet. “In a year or two, I suspect this survey would have different outcomes,” he predicted.
Will Kerwin, an equity analyst with Morningstar Research Services in Chicago, also cited the drawn-out rollout of Apple Intelligence as a source of consumer apathy toward AI on their iPhones. “We believe it’ll take consumers time to fully bake in how Apple Intelligence is most useful to them and adapt personal habits,” he told TechNewsWorld.
“This all informs our view that Apple iPhone sales driven by AI will be stronger in fiscal 2026 than they are currently in fiscal 2025,” he said.
Runar Bjørhovde, an analyst with Canalys, a global market research company, added: “The stark reality is that most people don’t buy phones because of AI. They buy because of different features.”
“If we think of the type of features that AI has enabled, they are not that interesting right now,” he told TechNewsWorld.
“It’s honestly not that surprising right now that AI features might disappoint people a bit because they’re not as advanced in reality as some of the marketing and messaging say they are,” he said.
Bjørhovde maintained that many tech firms are having an “existential crisis,” where they’ve lost the huge hype and interest that people have had in them for the last 20 years.
“They have to come up with new stories to try and get people interested,” he contended. “So, AI is a gold mine right now. I believe it can give us some really interesting innovations in a few years. But for now, it is this marketing bubble where people don’t actually know what to believe.”
Decline in Loyalty
The SellCell survey also found that about one in six iPhone users (16.8%) said they would consider switching to Samsung if it offered better AI features. In contrast, only 9.7% of Samsung users said they’d consider moving to Apple for better AI features.
It added that the percentage of users loyal to Apple has declined from 92% in 2021 to 78.9% now. That compares to a decline from 74% to 67.2% over the same period for Samsung.
“In general, the excitement around Apple’s annual upgrade cycle has declined a lot,” said Ross Rubin, the principal analyst at Reticle Research, a consumer technology advisory firm in New York City.
“These AI features are an attempt to inject something new and exciting into the experience,” he told TechNewsWorld. “But consumers are looking for a baseline of functionality and don’t think the platform is as much of an issue anymore.”
Still, the finding that so many Apple users might be willing to jump ship for AI is surprising, he acknowledged. “Apple users just tend to be far more likely to opt into Apple services,” he explained. “Because of the App Store investments, you can’t necessarily move all that stuff to another platform. So that makes the reported greater willingness to switch surprising.”
However, not everyone sees Apple’s fan base as waning. “We don’t see brand loyalty slipping in our surveys,” Bajarin declared. “We expect Apple to have a blockbuster holiday season, with iPhone sales and drawing many ‘switchers’ to the Apple ecosystem.”
“We also don’t think loyalty to Apple is going away,” Kerwin added. “In our view, iPhone users are significantly likely to remain iPhone users, and AI features are just another means of locking them into Apple’s ecosystem.”