Every gadget launch this year seems to mention AI somewhere on the box, and it’s worth asking honestly whether buyers are actually paying extra for it or just expecting it to be there for free.
According to Amazon India’s Best in Tech Survey 2026, which gathered more than forty thousand responses across smartphones, laptops, wearables, and audio products, eighty two percent of buyers report considering AI features when choosing a device. That figure suggests strong demand until one examines what actually drives the purchase decision itself.
Performance ranked highest at eighty seven percent, followed by battery life at seventy nine percent and camera quality at seventy seven percent, each comfortably ahead of AI as a stated reason to buy. Consumers value knowing AI is present. They are not selecting a product because of it.
AI Not Enough
Global research points to a similar, and at times more pronounced, conclusion. A CNET survey conducted with YouGov found that half of US smartphone owners are not willing to pay extra for AI features at all, up from forty five percent the previous year.
A separate CNET Smartphone Innovation Survey put the share willing to pay a premium specifically for AI at just three percent, down from six percent months earlier, with close to three in ten respondents stating they find AI features unhelpful and do not want to see more of them introduced.
Even within the premium smartphone segment, where AI receives the heaviest marketing investment, purchase data compiled by Counterpoint Research and Recon Analytics shows AI cited by well under five percent of buyers as a reason to upgrade, trailing far behind battery life and core performance, which together accounted for closer to a third of purchase decisions.
Lesson To Be Learned
This matters most for brands that live in the affordable, high volume end of consumer electronics, where audio gadgets, wearables, and everyday accessories sell on trust and value rather than headline specifications. The lesson from this year’s data isn’t that AI doesn’t matter. It’s that AI works as an expectation rather than a premium lever.
Buyers want a wireless earbud to already have smarter noise handling, a smartwatch to already track health metrics intelligently, a neckband to already tune sound automatically for the room it’s in, without that pushing the price into territory that makes the product feel like something else entirely. The features that get people to actually reach for their wallet remain stubbornly practical, battery life that lasts a full day, sound quality that holds up at high volume, a price that doesn’t sting, build quality that survives a gym bag.
What this means practically is straightforward, if not particularly exciting.
Bolting on an AI feature and charging a steep premium for it is likely to disappoint most buyers in the mass market, especially younger, value conscious shoppers who make up a huge share of India’s audio and wearable category. Building AI quietly into the product experience at the same price point people already expect to pay, better call clarity, smarter battery management, more accurate fitness tracking, tends to build loyalty instead. Consumers this year are telling brands something fairly direct. They will happily use AI.
They just don’t see why they should pay more for it, and any brand pricing strategy built on the opposite assumption is likely to learn that the hard way.
(The author is the COO & Co-Founder of UBON)
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