The Future of Consumer Tech: What’s Next After the AI Hype
The generative AI boom was noisy, from text-to-image magic, chatbots with uncanny wit, and headlines about billion-dollar compute clusters. But today, the real transformation is more subtle, yet more pervasive. The age of flashy AI is giving way to ubiquitous, embedded, and ambient intelligence, a shift that will redefine consumer experiences not with spectacle, but with seamlessness.
Across the U.S., China, and India, early signals point to a future in which AI becomes not an app, but the operating system of life. A world where intelligence doesn’t shout, but whispers in the background, optimising our environments, anticipating our choices, and learning from our routines.
From Cloud Brains to Local Instincts: On-Device AI Arrives
The cloud once powered AI, but now, silicon is reclaiming centre stage. By 2024, one in five PCs worldwide will feature AI acceleration chips, according to Deloitte. But this evolution is not simply about performance; it’s also about sovereignty. AI on-device enables faster inference, reduced latency, and enhanced data privacy, especially in devices such as smartphones, laptops, and wearables.
Firms such as Apple, Microsoft, AMD, and Qualcomm are spearheading the effort. At WWDC 2024, Apple unveiled “Apple Intelligence,” a brand of AI experiences running natively on its Neural Engine with enhancing tools like Siri, auto-completing text, and transforming sketches into photorealistic images. Microsoft followed suit, integrating AI into “Copilot+ PCs” with dedicated Neural Processing Units (NPUs).
This hardware renaissance coincides with the emergence of demand for generative AI chips, which is expected to surpass $50 billion in 2024, with projections reaching $400 billion by 2027. The likes of Nvidia and AMD are not just chipmakers now, they’re the architects of AI’s physical foundation.
But the deeper story is this: AI is moving closer to the user. No longer a remote oracle in the cloud, it is becoming a local instinct for processing your inputs, anticipating your needs, and doing so offline in real-time.
China’s Edge: Where Hardware, Software, and Scale Converge
If AI is the new electricity, then China is wiring it into every outlet. From factory floors to family sedans, China’s consumer tech landscape is already being reshaped by embedded AI.
EVs That Think, Adapt, and Respond
In 2024 alone, China sold 13 million electric vehicles, accounting for 62% of global EV sales (Reuters). But the edge isn’t just battery power, it’s intelligence. Brands like BYD, NIO, and IM Motors are outfitting vehicles with AI cockpits that detect driver fatigue, personalise climate and music, and even adapt scent diffusion to stress levels.
By 2025, 75% of Chinese EVs will feature smart cockpits, and 47% of users now treat their vehicles as work or leisure hubs. Autonomous features are also advancing rapidly: XPeng and Li Auto are already rolling out Level 3 capabilities, and by 2030, more than half of China’s new cars are expected to be capable of driving themselves under various conditions.
Digital Avatars and AI-Backed Commerce
In retail, too, China’s AI transformation is no less profound. Livestreaming, which was the purview of human hosts, has been taken over by virtual hosts today, with almost 1 million businesses working on digital avatar creation. These AI-driven personalities raked in over RMB 333 billion ($46 billion) in 2023 alone and are likely to reach nearly RMB 640 billion by the year 2025 (AutoTech News)
JD.com’s AI demand forecasting system achieved 93% accuracy, enabling companies like Nestlé to halve delivery times and nearly double inventory precision. Meanwhile, Xiaohongshu’s DianDian app, powered by DeepSeek-R1 and trained on over 300 million user-generated posts, is redefining discovery, reducing search times by 40%, and is trusted by almost 87% of users.
So, what’s common here? In China, AI is not a feature; it is an infrastructure.
The Return of the Machine
We’ve spent a decade celebrating the power of software. However, as AI workloads become increasingly intense, the spotlight is back on hardware as a strategic differentiator.
The modern enterprise is no longer judged just by apps or services, but by the computing power it can harness. A Databricks report found that the financial sector saw 88% growth in GPU usage for fraud detection and wealth algorithms in just six months. Cloud GPU capacity is near saturation, forcing hyperscalers to spend nearly $1 trillion on new data centres.
To ease the pressure, a new generation of chips known as neural processing units (NPUs) is gaining ground. These power everything from smart TVs to industrial robots, enabling efficient, offline AI workloads that preserve privacy and save energy.
This pivot also unlocks new use cases, such as in modular robotics, where systems like Mytra’s AI-controlled storage cubes reconfigure themselves for optimal logistics, or Figure AI’s humanoid robots, which are tested at BMW plants and capable of learning and assembling car parts through visual and tactile feedback.
In short, the era of AI is not just about smarter code. It’s about smarter machines.
Personalisation Becomes the Default
Once the domain of digital marketers, personalisation is now a full-stack experience from what you wear to what your fridge orders. Consumers expect AI not only to predict their next click but also to optimise their environment, mood, and intent.
In India, e-commerce is projected to reach $147 billion by 2028, growing at 18.7% CAGR (Bain & Company). As digital payments and vernacular internet usage scale (UPI grew 24% YoY), AI is helping brands localise everything from recommendations to AR-based try-ons to voice-guided shopping.
Meanwhile, Western brands such as Victoria’s Secret and Swarovski have reported double-digit lifts in email and conversion metrics from AI-enhanced personalisation (McKinsey, 2025).
The paradigm is shifting from predictive to prescriptive, not just understanding you, but deciding for you.
Rukam’s Lens: Investing in Silent, Systemic AI
At Rukam Capital, the AI thesis is not about dazzling interfaces, but about quiet transformation beneath the surface.
Take Roomstory.ai, a Rukam Sitara-backed startup that enables users to shop for curated interior design themes through AI-powered 3D simulations. In India’s $38.2 billion interior design market (Redseer), Roomstory converts inspiration into action, seamlessly blending discovery with purchase.
Another venture, Nitro, is building AI-driven infrastructure to close the loop between user acquisition and conversion. As Umair Mohammed, Co-founder & CEO, puts it, Nitro was created to fill a critical gap. It’s helping brands turn website visitors into customers by democratising data and empowering small businesses with actionable insights. Instead of chasing flashy features, Nitro places AI where it matters most, behind the scenes, quietly enhancing decision-making and growth.
The investment lens is clear:
- Small, task-specific models > Large, generic ones
- Embedded intelligence > Interface novelty
- Infrastructure-led personalisation > Cloud-dependent orchestration
What Comes After the AI Wave?
AI’s first act was dazzling. Its next act will be durable.
A smartphone that adjusts your playlist to match your mood and suggests an outfit based on the weather, all computed privately. A home where devices synchronise lighting, dinner menus, and entertainment, based on who walks in. A personal robot that manages chores, errands, or patient care, evolving with your habits.
The consumer AI frontier is no longer about software magic. It’s about systemic, invisible integration, where AI doesn’t shout, but listens, learns, and adapts.
As Deloitte notes, AI will soon be as fundamental and unremarkable as electricity or the HTTP protocol. You won’t “use” it. You’ll live inside it.
And that, ultimately, is where the real opportunity lies.
