Super Smart Smartphones: The Naturalisation of AI within Smartphone Ecosystems

AI is quickly entering into our lives, and recently it is being integrated into smartphones, a technology that is deeply naturalized in our daily life. The goal of this contribution is to examine the processes through which generative AI is being naturalized within the everyday use of smartphones, with particular attention to the narrative strategies employed by major technology companies to communicate and normalize this integration. Drawing on the tool of generative semiotics and sociosemiotics, the search considers smartphones as technical objects whose deep social embedding enables them to mediate the domestication of AI functionalities. Through a comparative analysis of three product launch videos from 2024 by Google, Apple and Samsung, this chapter seeks to highlight how each brand frames AI within distinct valorisations and actantial roles. While the AI assistant integrated in the devices is predominantly presented as a Helper assisting users in achieving their goals, some instances reveal that AI is taking on the role of the Subject, e.g. by autonomously performing tasks following user input. The study reflects on how this reconfigures agency between humans and devices and contributes to the redefinition of boundaries between public and private spheres. Finally, it argues that these communicative and technological strategies contribute to an accelerated naturalization of AI in everyday life, reshaping forms of delegation in contemporary technology.