IoT devices like connected cars, wearables, and smart home speakers generate behavioral data and create moments where marketing messages can reach engaged audiences.

AI shopping assistants are boosting discovery and personalization, but trust issues and fulfillment challenges could limit their impact on channel migration.

Voice assistants will add nearly 30 million US users between 2022 and 2029, fueled by genAI, demographic shifts, and new hardware. Key adoption trends, platform battles, and marketing opportunities are shaping the next era of voice technology.

The news: Apple could soon renew its smart home and robotics plans with a slew of products. The hardware giant is planning an AI-enabled tabletop robot, per Bloomberg, a smart home camera, and a smart speaker with a display. This could all be accompanied by a major Siri upgrade built on large language models (LLMs). Our take: This could be Apple’s biggest ecosystem play since the iPhone. If successful, it could drive growth in a post-iPhone era, reestablish Apple in the AI game, and usher in a new era of home-based intelligence.

The news: Amazon is acquiring AI wearables company Bee, opening up a path for the Big Tech player to reenter the wearables field. The startup sells $49.99 AI-powered watches, which record and transcribe all conversations. Amazon said all Bee employees have been offered roles at the company. The value of the deal wasn’t disclosed. Our take: With Bee’s technology—and its endlessly refreshed user data—Amazon could incrementally improve its beleaguered Alexa or train future products. If the company plans to keep Bee running, rather than cancel the product and use its software elsewhere, it could have substantial competition in the AI wearables space—especially if OpenAI launches an AI device.

The insights: Generation X leads in consumer spending, and tech industry marketers may be missing out on a key opportunity, especially this holiday season. Gen Xers worldwide will spend $15.2 trillion in 2025—more than any other generation—per NielsenIQ’s The X Factor report. 25% of UK Gen Xers plan to spend more than £500 ($639) on Christmas gifts this year, per Azerion, while only 1% of Gen Zers say they will spend that much. Our take: This is marketers’ cue to lean into smarter personalization, digital experiences, and loyalty programs that appeal to Gen X’s tech-savvy, open-minded style, and their outsized influence on household spending. Dedicated strategies to target Gen X now will drive growth while spending power is at its peak.

Our analysts took a look at the first half of this eventful year and provided their own very specific—albeit unlikely—predictions at what could happen in the second half of the year and beyond.

The New York Times will license its journalism to Amazon: The deal supports AI training while signaling a shift toward paid data partnerships.

Apple’s Fortnite feud, Amazon’s device division cuts, and Apple Music’s new user lure reveal how tech titans are adjusting strategies in a volatile regulatory and consumer landscape.

With always-on AI, Meta’s next smart glasses could normalize surveillance as convenience—especially in a lax US regulatory climate.

With promised features missing, the rollout echoes a broader trend of overpromising and underdelivering in AI.

Echo users can no longer block voice data sharing as Amazon quietly makes off-device processing mandatory to train Alexa+.

Form factor is Gemini’s secret weapon: With Gemini landing across every Google touchpoint, it’s poised to dominate as Apple fumbles Siri and Amazon slaps a fee on Alexa+.

Delays in core features could stall everything from Vision Pro to smart home devices, just as rivals double down on smarter assistants.

Apple’s delay underscores how hard on-device AI is to get right. Meanwhile, Alexa+ and Gemini also stumble, proving voice assistants aren’t an easy win.

The improved Alexa finally debuts with better conversation skills and smart home features. Can Amazon convince users to pay when smartphones offer similar features for free?

Amazon faces technical and factual challenges as it transforms Alexa into an advanced AI agent, delaying progress and risking its market relevance.

Rushed genAI promises and delayed launches erode trust, exposing how tech giants are prioritizing hype over realistic timelines in a race to beat competitors

Voice assistants fumble the AI revolution: Despite genAI advancements, Big Tech’s assistants face stalled growth and disinterest from older users—Gen Z and parents of Gen Alpha might be their saving grace.