How AI is revolutionising our daily lives – from sleeping to driving to scrolling

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Everyone is talking about AI. But what’s the everyday reality of the tech? Let’s explore the impact in an average day.

In 2025, TV viewers watched actor Idris Elba showcasing the benefits of AI in the workplace. In a TV ad, Elba explains how employees can use AI ‘co-pilots’ to become more productive.

The ad is an example of the incredible journey taken by AI innovation. The tech has been in the background for decades. Now, Hollywood movie stars are promoting it on TV.

What changed? The obvious factor: Chat GPT. Open AI’s large language model bot launched in 2022, and reached 100 million monthly active users in two months. Today, billions of non-technical people use services like Chat GPT, Claude, Dall-E and more to find answers, generate content and maximise their security.

The tech has reached a tipping point. Gartner predicts generative AI (GenAI) spending will total $644 billion in 2025, driven largely by the integration of AI into hardware, such as voice activated speakers, smartphones and PCs.

But what does this revolution look like in ‘real life’? Let’s walk through an average day…

While we are sleeping….
 

Apps that monitor sleep patterns are popular with millions. Now, AI is also embedding smart features into otherwise ‘dumb’ items like beds and pillows. New AI-powered mattresses come with smart sensors for biometric tracking, and an app that analyses sleep data to offer insights and adjustments. Some feature an “AI Concierge” that will react to your movements and adjust firmness to stop you from waking.

Meanwhile AI-enhanced pillows claim to reduce snoring. They take data from a microphone to inflate airbags that adjust your position in order to open your airways. 

On the phone…

AI’s biggest impact on the smartphone came first in the form of biometric authentication, initially by fingerprint, then by face and now by voice – offering much stronger protection than PINs, passwords and one time text codes. New systems can detect and block spam calls, identify suspicious apps and protect against phishing attempts.

Away from authentication, phone makers are using on-device AI to make people’s lives easier. Popular examples include:

•    A new feature on some of the latest smartphones let you draw a circle on an image to identify objects and sounds, translate text, or ask questions.

•    On-the-fly translation with someone who speaks another language.

•    Call recording with summaries that highlight the key points.

•    Photo tools like Magic Editor that remove unwanted objects/people from a pic.

•    Assistants that learn your habits and remind you of tasks based on your location and routine.

 
In the home: voice assistants…

Smart speakers and devices such as Siri, Google Home and Echo can understand complex commands, perform searches and can hold simple conversations. Now, AI advances are moving the tech forward again. Google’s Gemini Live, for example, lets users share their screen or desktop to get answers about the content.

Apple, Amazon and Meta are in the process of updating their assistants too. Not just on phones and smart speakers. In 2024, Ray-Ban launched smart glasses with a "Hey Meta" voice prompt that allows users to access Meta's AI assistant.

New AI innovations in smart speakers include:

•    Identifying different users to give personal responses. 

•    Spatial awareness. Devices adjust their sound to where a person is in a room. 

•    Noise cancellation. Speakers hear your commands even in noisy environments.

•    Smart home automation. Speakers learn routines and then adjust lights, temperature, or music without being asked. 

Staying in touch: email and spam 

The average person receives up to 120 emails a day. New AI email assistants have emerged to tackle this deluge. They automate responses and organise your inbox. 

They are also very effective at reducing spam. Traditional spam filters used rules to spot specific keywords and block unwanted emails. AI systems are more effective because they adapt without manual intervention. They check language, tone and context, analyse sender behaviour, check blacklists and look for anomalies.

Many popular providers such as Gmail and Outlook already incorporate these capabilities. The next stage will be network-based AI filtering, which can intercept spam before it reaches the user’s phone.

Scrolling and browsing: social media…

Every day 5.4 billion people use social media to consume and share useful information. New tools make it easy for people to improve their feeds. They can use a simple prompt to generate captions, images and professional-quality video. They can even generate an AI-generated presenter with their own voice and facial expressions. 

Talking to a business: Chatbots 

Live chat is great when it gives the right answer – and frustrating when it doesn’t. AI bots should improve the situation. Conversational agents understand natural speech, and can even detect emotions such as frustration or satisfaction. They can handle routine inquiries like order tracking, password resets and account questions. The next step? More complex tasks. For example, a travel agent bot could recommend the best travel itinerary, confirm bookings and email the reservations—all without human intervention.

However, the real revolution is customer service will be ‘agentic’ where consumers manage their own agents, which they send out to appraise and buy products/services on their behalf. The World Economic Forum believes this market will generate $4 trillion in buying power in the US alone by 2030.

 
On the road: real-time GPS navigation…

 Navigation was one of the first spaces where consumers saw AI impact their daily lives by offering advice on routes, traffic, accidents, weather conditions, arrival times and more.

AI is expected to keep improving the tech with answers more aligned to the traveller’s preferences. But a bigger change could be ‘under the hood’. For example, work is now under way to devise navigation systems that provide an alternative to satellite GPS. The new solutions use AI to determine location by combining data from accelerometers, gyroscopes and other motion sensors with cached maps.

Managing our money…

AI is transforming banking by improving efficiency, security, and customer experience. One of the most visible applications is customer service, where AI-powered chatbots and virtual assistants offer 24/7 support, handling routine inquiries and reducing operational costs.
Closely tied to this is biometric authentication, where facial and voice recognition enhanced by AI enables secure, seamless access. Some banks now even allow customers to open accounts remotely by verifying a selfie against official identification documents in real time.
Behind the scenes, fraud detection has also advanced, with AI analyzing transaction patterns in real time to flag suspicious activity and combat financial crime.
Finally, credit scoring and loan assessment are being transformed by AI’s ability to evaluate broader, real-time data, enabling more accurate risk profiling and more inclusive lending. Together, these innovations are streamlining banking operations while enhancing trust, personalization, and access.