Google Now was the default assistant for Android phones in 2016 and matched up well with Apple's Siri and Microsoft's Cortana. The launch of Google Assistant on the Pixel phones seems to have opened the floodgates for advanced intelligence and machine learning on Android smartphones.

The Huawei Mate 9 is now available in the US for just $599 and will soon receive an update that brings Amazon Alexa to work in combination with the integrated machine learning already found in the Mate 9.

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The HTC U Ultra and Play devices will be coming in a month or so and include HTC Sense Companion. We haven't seen Sense Companion in action yet, but understand HTC built upon Google Now while including intelligence to learn your lifestyle over time.

Samsung confirmed it will include an artificial intelligence digital assistant on the Galaxy S8. It has had S Voice on devices for years, but that assistant lacked intelligence and performance was often lagging. After acquiring Viv Labs last year, I'm sure we will see a much better product in Bixby.

LG sent along the teaser image above to promote the LG G6. There are rumors it could include Google Assistant or Amazon Alexa, with CNET even speculating it may contain both. The teaser states that the AI will be brought to you first by LG, which may mean it is the first non-Google phone with Google Assistant. LG may beat Huawei to the release of Amazon Alexa -- since we don't yet have a timeline for Alexa on the Mate 9.

With the statement of more intelligence being made, having both Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant makes sense. While these two offer voice assistance, they could be made to complement each other as Alexa has defined skills while Google Assistant is more open and conversational.

I am excited to see our smartphones doing more heavy lifting and helping us become more efficient. Given that the internal specs, camera performance, battery life, large screen design, and more have all reached near parity, the wave of artificial intelligence may be what helps you pick one phone over another.

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