Near the start of each year, I look at what’s new in consumer technology to give a heads-up on which innovations could actually affect your day-to-day life.
In the past, many trends showed up on this list repeatedly, like the smart home, fitness tech and electric cars, because the tech took time to mature. Not everything pans out; while those last two examples became hot, smart home technology still has some rough edges.
Here are the trends to watch this year.
Talk to computers
For the past 15 years, Apple, Google and Amazon made a big bet that their Siri, Google Assistant and Alexa voice assistants would persuade people to regularly talk to their computers to get things done. This vision hasn’t exactly panned out. People mostly use voice assistants for a few basic tasks, like checking the weather, playing songs and setting timers. It’s especially rare to see people talk to voice assistants in public.
But we may finally see a shift in consumer behaviour with the surging popularity of AI chatbots like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini and Anthropic’s Claude. Lots of people are already conversing with the bots through text. So it’s reasonable to predict that as AI voices begin to sound humanlike, more people will start to talk to their computers, even in public, said Lucas Hansen, a founder of CivAI, a nonprofit that educates people about AI’s capabilities and consequences.
“More and more people are talking to AI, not just as a search engine but as a conversational partner,” he said.
Smartphone successor
Although phones are not going away, the acceleration of AI has created an opportunity for tech companies to experiment with devices they hope will be the next personal computing device, and some companies are betting hard on smart glasses.
Ray-Ban Meta glasses, which people use to take photos and listen to music, have been a modest hit, with millions of sales. Late last year, the company started selling the Meta Ray-Ban Display, which includes a digital display to show data and apps in the corner of a wearer’s eye.
Other tech companies, including Google and the startup Pickle, have unveiled similar glasses with screens.
Google famously tried to sell Google Glass, a headset with a transparent display and camera, more than a decade ago. It was a spectacular flop in large part because it was ugly, gimmicky and creepy to people who didn’t enjoy being surveilled.
This time, tech companies are hoping the chatty AI companions built into their glasses can make the devices more appealing.
Browse with AI
When we do a Google search, an AI-generated response is usually the first thing we see. Meta’s AI chatbot is built into Instagram and WhatsApp, with no option to turn it off. Companies including OpenAI and the Browser Co. have also released web browsers with built-in AI assistants. In Windows, Microsoft now includes an AI assistant, Copilot, that answers users’ questions.
To set itself apart, Mozilla, the maker of the Firefox web browser, has taken a less aggressive approach. Last year, it added AI tools to Firefox for summarising articles and getting help from an assistant but, instead of turning on the features by default, it said users had a choice to opt in.
Nonetheless, expect the AI-ification of the web to continue.
Self-driving taxis
In a sure sign that robot taxis are here to stay, Waymo, Google’s self-driving taxi service, is pressing forward with a major expansion despite a citywide meltdown in San Francisco.
Last month, after a power outage in San Francisco caused Waymos to block intersections and get stuck in traffic, the company suspended services for one day. Some city officials defended the service, noting that robot taxis are still generally safer than human drivers. The overall sentiment toward robot taxis remains positive.
Late last year, Waymo — which operates in the San Francisco Bay Area, Phoenix, Los Angeles, Atlanta and Austin in Texas — started allowing riders to take the robot taxis on freeways. Zoox, Amazon’s self-driving taxi service, also started offering rides in San Francisco, and Tesla has been testing its vehicles in the city. And recently, Uber unveiled its new robot taxi, which it plans to roll out this year.
In other words, if you haven’t ridden in a self-driving car yet, this year may finally be the time.
NYTNS