The promise of AI-powered devices is enormous: more efficiency, more personalisation, and more seamless digital living. For businesses, this creates opportunities for new services that can run directly on devices without the heavy cost of cloud infrastructure. For consumers, it creates an effortless experience where technology adapts to them rather than the other way around.
But the challenges are equally real. With AI working in the background, data privacy becomes critical. Devices need to ensure that personal information never leaks or gets misused. Energy consumption is another question — while AI chips are efficient, millions of them running continuously could add strain to electricity demand. There is also the risk of fragmentation, with each manufacturer developing isolated AI systems that fail to communicate with one another.
South Africa, with its unique mix of affordability concerns and ambitious digital growth, highlights these opportunities and challenges clearly. Adoption will depend not just on availability but also on trust, accessibility, and the ability of devices to solve real local problems.
AI-powered devices represent more than just the next gadget cycle; they’re setting the foundation for a new digital era. This won’t arrive with a single announcement but through incremental updates to the devices already in our homes, pockets, and workplaces. Over time, we may forget that there was ever a moment when our devices weren’t “smart.”
Just as the smartphone defined the past decade, AI-powered devices are set to define the next. Their influence will extend far beyond personal convenience, shaping industries, economies, and societies in subtle but powerful ways. From education and healthcare to small business and entertainment, the quiet intelligence built into our devices may well be the most transformative innovation of the decade.
We are only at the beginning. As AI-powered devices become more affordable and more widely available, the real change will be seen in how they unlock opportunities for millions of people who have previously been left on the wrong side of the digital divide. In South Africa and across emerging markets, these devices can help close gaps in access to information, learning, and economic participation. That impact — lifting communities as much as individuals — could be the true legacy of this technological shift.