Google’s new Pixel 11 phones offer one of the clearest previews yet of how AI will change our smartphones: less tapping through apps, and more tasks handed to an assistant that works in the background. The phones, announced on August 12, change little in design and hardware from last year’s models, but add many more features built on Google’s Gemini AI, TechCrunch reported.
That pattern says a lot about where the industry is heading. Phone hardware has matured, so the competition is moving to software, and specifically to AI that can act on the user’s behalf.
From answering questions to doing tasks
The biggest change is what the industry calls agentic AI: an assistant that completes tasks instead of only answering questions. With the Pixel 11, US users can ask Gemini to order groceries, book rides or get coffee. Gemini can also call businesses to make table reservations or appointments.
Google says users can take over or stop a task at any point and review transcripts of calls the AI makes on their behalf. That control matters, because an assistant that books the wrong appointment or orders the wrong item is worse than no assistant at all.
Over the following weeks, more apps are due to connect to Gemini, including Granola, Otter.ai, Wix, Ticketmaster, Thumbtack and Zocdoc. The more services an assistant can reach, the less users need to open each app themselves.
A light that shows the AI is listening
One small hardware change is designed around AI. The Pixel 11 Pro models have a ring of LEDs around the camera flash that Google calls HiLight. According to Google, when the phone is face down, the light shows that Gemini is active and has heard your voice. It can also glow in different colours for calls and messages from chosen contacts.
It solves a real problem with voice assistants: when you speak to a phone across the room, you often do not know whether it heard you. A visible signal makes hands-free use more practical.
AI in everyday features
Many of the new features are less dramatic but more useful day to day:
- Dictation: Rambler, a dictation tool Google announced in May to compete with apps such as Wispr Flow, comes to Pixel phones and turns speech into text messages.
- Translation: the phones can translate videos, podcasts and voice messages into another language.
- Magic Cue: Gemini surfaces information from across apps at the right moment, such as suggestions for a dinner spot.
- Camera: Magic Capture picks the best frames from a video so it can be turned into photos, and a new accessibility feature uses Gemini to translate sign language into text.
All Pixel 11 phones run Google’s new Tensor G6 chip, which Google says is 20% more power-efficient and allows 25% faster browsing. Running AI models on the phone itself, rather than in the cloud, needs efficient chips, and battery life remains a limit for heavy AI use, one reason battery research such as the quantum battery prototype gets attention.
The cost of the AI phone
AI-focused phones are not getting cheaper. The Pixel 11 starts at $899, the Pixel 11 Pro at $1,099 and the Pro XL at $1,299. All models now start with 256GB of storage, and there is no cheaper 128GB version as last year. With component costs rising, Google raised the price of the top model by $100.
What is still missing
Today’s assistants can handle simple, well-defined tasks with partner apps. They still struggle with complex jobs that involve several services, unclear instructions or sensitive data. Privacy is also a concern: an assistant that can act across all your apps needs access to a lot of personal information, and many users are wary of handing that over. Companies will need to show that agents are reliable and transparent before people trust them with money, health or work.
Why it matters for businesses
If assistants start ordering, booking and buying for users, businesses will increasingly deal with customers through an AI layer. Restaurants, shops and service providers that integrate with assistants such as Gemini may get bookings that others miss. Companies should think about how their services appear to AI agents, not only to people browsing an app or website.
Our take
The Pixel 11 shows that the future of the smartphone is less about the screen and more about delegation. The practical features, such as dictation, translation and visible signals that the assistant is listening, are the ones most people will use. The bigger promise, an assistant that reliably runs errands across apps, is still early, and it will succeed only if users stay in control and can see exactly what the AI did on their behalf.