But the true opportunity lies beyond the premium tier. From wired headsets in enterprise call centers to gaming peripherals, conferencing monitors, and AI-powered smart glasses, the potential to deliver intelligent sound experiences across a much broader swath of devices and price points has never been greater.
From Passive Audio to Intelligent Experiences
Historically, audio devices have been passive conduits for sound, engineered to simply capture or transmit sound with minimal contextual awareness. But as AI becomes more integrated into everyday devices, expectations are shifting dramatically. Users now want headsets that isolate their voice in noisy spaces, earbuds that tune audio in real-time, and transparency modes that intelligently balance environmental awareness and communication.
AI is enabling exactly that. Some of the most transformative capabilities emerging today include:
- Adaptive Active Noise Cancellation (ANC): Rather than applying a fixed filter, AI-driven ANC dynamically senses and adjusts to the environment—reducing the roar of a plane engine while letting important announcements through.
- AI-Enhanced Environmental Noise Cancellation (AI-ENC): Machine learning algorithms can distinguish between background noise and human speech, suppressing distractions while enhancing vocal clarity.
- AI-Powered Transparency Mode: Enhances situational awareness by selectively amplifying important sounds and feeding the speaker’s voice back to their ears for a more natural, comfortable conversation experience.
- Personalized Audio Profiles: AI enables devices to adapt sound output to the listener’s hearing preferences or even biometric data, improving comfort and perceived audio quality.
The “Premiumization” Gap (and how to close it)
As more consumers experience intelligent audio in premium-tier devices, they begin to expect similar capabilities in the rest of their tech—from mid-range wireless earbuds to wired work headsets. This is creating a “premiumization gap”: a mismatch between rising user expectations and the features available in most device categories.
But this gap isn’t a barrier — it’s an opportunity.
AI-enabled audio platforms are making it possible to offer high-end experiences — studio-quality sound, real-time voice enhancement, spatial audio, and more — across a broader spectrum of devices. Whether for enterprise professionals, everyday commuters, or competitive gamers, the goal is the same: intelligent audio that adapts, improves, and elevates the experience.
Democratizing AI-Driven Audio
Bringing premium AI features to mainstream devices requires more than raw performance — it takes a foundation of power efficiency, scalability, and flexibility.
Take power efficiency, for example. For a marathon runner relying on TWS earbuds, battery life is non-negotiable. Likewise for someone working remotely through back-to-back video meetings. Devices built on advanced low-power processing architectures can now deliver all-day performance without compromising on features.
Scalability is equally important. A consistent, intelligent audio experience across devices — from cost-effective wired headsets to Bluetooth 5.4-enabled TWS earbuds — relies on platforms that offer a unified development environment and modular design. This allows manufacturers to scale features up or down without rebuilding core systems from scratch, reducing development time and cost.
Enterprise-grade performance also remains critical. Consider a financial analyst on a noisy trading floor where background noise, colleagues’ chatter, and keyboard clicks can disrupt critical conversations. Using audio solutions certified for Microsoft Teams Open Office Premium v5 ensures crystal-clear voice pickup that meets the highest industry standards. This same level of AI-driven noise suppression also enhances on-the-go voice calls in busy cafés, airports, or public spaces.
And at the center of these capabilities is real-time AI processing. With on-device intelligence handling everything from adaptive ANC to voice ID, modern audio systems can respond instantly to changes in environment or user input, enabling more natural, seamless interaction.
The Road Ahead: Audio That Thinks
We’ve moved beyond the era of static audio. Sound is now context-aware, adaptive, and increasingly personal.
Whether it's a pair of smart glasses that enhances street-level awareness, earbuds that respond to your movement and noise profile, or conferencing systems that zero in on your voice while muting the chaos around you — AI is turning audio devices into active partners in how we experience the world.
For manufacturers, the challenge — and the opportunity — is clear: deliver these intelligent features across an increasingly diverse set of products, without sacrificing battery life, form factor, or price accessibility.
AI is no longer an edge case for audio. It’s the new baseline. And those who build for it today are setting the tone for how we’ll all listen tomorrow. aX
This article was originally published in The Audio Voice newsletter, (#512), April 24, 2025.
About the author
Ivan Knez is the GM of Synaptics' AI Solutions business, bringing deep expertise in strategic leadership across AI, semiconductor, and consumer tech industries. He holds a PhD in Solid State Physics from Rice, an MBA from Berkeley Haas, and has led technical and business strategy roles at Apple, ARM, SanDisk, and IBM.
