This article will be helpful for you if you want to implement AI features into a mobile app but are not sure how everything works. We’ve disclosed everything you, as a business, need to know: core business benefits from AI implementation, a detailed plan before its implementation, and predictions for 2026. Take a closer look!

What is AI in a mobile app?

AI in mobile apps is the built-in algorithms that deeply analyze user behaviour inside the apps, offer personalized recommendations based on this, and automate repetitive tasks. Today, they fully changed the user experience and the way we use mobile apps on our smartphones. What’s more – we expect to see AI features in every app we download as they are ecologically implemented into our behavioral patterns. It runs across apps and is integrated into our smartphones’ operating systems (OS), so we treat it as a natural part of every mobile app. It makes our lives easier and opens up more in-app opportunities that boost our engagement as well. 

In 2025, the AI market was valued at around at $27.7 billion. These are the money companies spend on testing and integrating AI into mobile apps worldwide. This indicator will only grow, with predictive analytics forecasting around 31% annual growth in the coming years. 

According to the Business Wire research: “Smartphones generate the highest revenues in 2025, driven by their ubiquity as the primary platform for AI-powered personalization, voice assistants, and multimedia enhancements.” And such a dynamic will only evolve in the coming years. 

How does AI work in a mobile app?

AI analyzes and learn on the users’ actions we do every day. It’s like a brain inside the app that watches what you do to make your experience better. When it understands your behaviour, it adapts to it, generates recommendations, and makes predictive analytics to offer quick tips or organize features within the app for a smoother, more intuitive user experience.

Let’s watch this on a quick example to understand how things work. Let’s say you download an app where combined songs in various genres. Every day you listen to some that you prefer more and create a song list within the app. What does AI do all this time? First, it starts collecting data on your daily actions and analyzes the songs you listen to more. Over time, it starts offer you new songs according to the preferences you make and sends you notifications when the new ones appear in the app. So you don’t need to spend your time searching for songs you like; AI does all the work for you. 

Technically, it works through machine learning models that can operate directly in a mobile app or via the cloud. The app collects data on actions – clicks, usage time, location, entered text, and transmits it to the model. The model, in turn, processes the data and outputs the result: recommendations, notifications, or changes to the user interface. This is exactly how the recommendations and AI features are prepared, long before they appear on our smartphone screens.

What business benefits can AI bring to your mobile app?

Two key benefits you get from integrating AI in a mobile app are increased conversions and user engagement. And, of course, the second one drives the first one forward. It transforms the user experience fully and creates a new era with specific rules we will follow in the coming years as mobile app users. Thus, it can directly impact your business – provided the AI features are implemented correctly and strategically. Here are more business benefits AI can bring to your mobile app.

1. Automate workflows

With AI, less time goes to repetitive tasks and more time you get to generate and make business decisions. For example, certain AI features can automatically sort product cards inside the app, send notifications, and give answers to standard or frequently asked questions via chatbots. It significantly saves your team time and gives more room for other tasks, more important than the routine ones. In the outcome, your app users get more advanced and fast support while your team concentrates on creating new initiatives, AI app ideas, designing new features, or working on marketing activities. 

2. Engage customers with intelligent features

AI makes mobile apps more interactive and fun. It offers personal tips, adapted recommendations, and notifications just right when you need them. They can appear in the app via a smart assistant or just as separate features. They work as a gamification elements that emerge in apps and engage users use them longer. Thus, AI and mobile apps‘ smart features increased spending in-app time and user loyalty as they like such a format more. And remember, once again – this also drives higher conversions. 

3. Improved personalization and user experience

That’s the core business aim, gained thanks to AI implementation into mobile apps. As we explained before, machine learning algorithms analyze users’ behaviour and adapt the app content to it. For example, an app may offer products that users are most likely to want to buy while online shopping, or videos that will interest them. This personalization makes the app both more convenient and enjoyable to use. When you implement it right, you increase the chances that the user will return to your app.

According to MoldStud Research, in 2025, almost 75% mobile apps used AI as a driver for personalization and better user experience. This will increase user retention in the app by up to 30% compared to traditional methods without AI.

4. Data decision making and predictive analytics

As mobile apps collect a huge volume of data, a lot of time is needed to analyse it, segment it, and build a business strategy using the results. With AI, this process goes on the fly. Besides collecting and analysing all input data by itself, it also makes predictions that you can use right away for mobile app users. 

For example, AI can predict which products will become popular, when to replenish stocks, when its beter time to offer sales propositions and discounts, or which users are at risk of stopping using the app. That’s a really deep work that can be easily done only by smart technologies that analyse mobile app data inside and out. This helps you make faster, more informed decisions, minimize losses, and plan business growth based on real data.

5. Increased revenue and customer retention

This indicator can be achieved thanks to all the points we’ve disclosed above. When AI automates processes, personalizes content, and keeps users engaged, businesses see a direct financial impact faster. You get more repeat purchases, higher conversion rates, and longer interactions with the product. According to McKinsey research, AI-based personalization can increase company revenues by 10–15%. Which means, AI not only improves the user experience but also has a real impact on profits and business growth.

What you need to know before integrating AI into your mobile app

We advise following this step-by-step plan and running a deep analysis at every step. 

1. Define clear business goals and the core issue you want to solve with AI. Before integrating AI into a mobile app, you should understand for what purpose. The answer “just to come up with the same companies in my nice” doesn’t work. The clear goal may include content personalization, process automation, chatbots, analytics, or sales forecasting. Without clarity, you rist to use AI as an expensive tool rather that business growth driver. 
2. Choose the AI technology type. There are two options you can get today – on-device AI or cloud AI. On-device AI is fast, low-latency, and offers better privacy, but is limited by the device’s power. And cloud AI can handle big data sets and complex models, but you need an internet connection and a lot of servers. It’s up to you to decide what will serve your business goals better. 
3. Choose best fitted machine learning model. You can find tons of them, but remember that every AI model performs for a certain purpose; they’re not suited to every task. For example, recommendation neural networks are used for content recommendations, NLP models are used for text processing, and computer vision (CV) is used for images. To choose one, you have to get the deep prep work at step one from this list. 
4. Prepare and save your data beforehand. Since AI works directly with data, you need a database that stores all you will use further. Namely, user history, behavioral patterns, transactions, and entered data. Alongside this, remember to comply with privacy laws (GDPR, CCPA), encrypt personal data, and avoid collecting excessive information. This set of actions will save your data and avoid its leaks. By the way, when users know that their sensitive data is securely protected, they are more likely use your mobile app more.  
5. Plan integrations with your existing system. AI must flawlessly work together with your CRM, analytics, databases, and other services. It is necessary to assess how it will receive data and how the results will be displayed in the application. In other words, set all workflows in advance to get fewer issues during AI integration. 
6. Testing and optimisation stage. After integrating AI, you need to constantly test its accuracy, speed, and impact on users. It’s smart but still needs double-checking from the teams. This allows you to adjust models and improve results on time. 

Who should consider implementing AI in their mobile app?

According to the huge demand for AI features right through mobile apps, we considered the following businesses that will benefit more from AI implementation.

• E-commerce and retail. With AI, you can easily personalize in-app offers, send notifications about discounts, and set marketing activities before holiday seasons. This will boost conversions and repeat purchases significantly. We prioritize this business because of the rapid growth in online shopping.
• Media and entertainment. AI will help users gather the appropriate content they prefer most – songs, videos, pictures, or even games.  
• FinTech businesses. This industry is also evolving in mobile app use, so AI can bring real value to it as well. You can use AI models for automatic transaction analysis, financial behavior forecasting, and security system improvement.
• EdTech and LMS platforms. Today they have a huge popularity among students and institutions. In this area, AI will serve as a buddy assistant who create personalzed learning paths, student progress assessments, and automatic recommendations for learning materials.
• Wellness and Sports. AI features will help users track their activity in the app, make health predictions, create personalized advice, and training plans.
• Food delivery. In these kinds of apps, AI will be useful for route optimization, demand forecasting, personalized offers, and improved customer interaction.

Conclusion: Why AI implementation will be crucial for mobile apps in 2026

Looking at dynamic in 2025 with AI demand and business results, we can predict that in 2026 it will gain even more attention and necessity. AI as a smart feature in mobile apps will become a solid standard that businesses across industries will follow. First of all, to get more financial benefits and also to meet users’ needs. We’ve already seen the AI as a part of our smartphones and mobile apps we use on a daily basis. That’s why AI features will become a must-have, driving even higher user engagement than we saw in 2025.

Those companies that come up with this wave and implement AI into core mobile app features will get more in the coming year. More loyalty from users, increased conversions, a strong foundation for business growth, and more accurate business decisions based on AI analysis. Scale your business in 2026 with next-gen AI features and creative mobile solutions!