Your next smartphone will probably be what the tech industry calls an artificially intelligent phone, a handset that does all the work for you.

But is that something people even want?

Google thinks so. Each year, the search giant releases new Pixel smartphones that include quirky new A.I. software for speeding up tasks. Its Pixel 11 phones, which arrive in stores this week, will let users ask Google’s A.I. assistant, Gemini, to order groceries, hail rides and book restaurant tables.

The A.I. in the new Pixel phones is part of Google’s ambition to redefine personal computing. The company is betting that A.I. will eventually supersede the operating system in importance as people rely on Gemini instead of using apps themselves. Apple will test a similar idea this fall with the release of Siri AI, a new version of its personal assistant (also powered by Gemini) for iPhones.

Google’s Pixel phone, which starts at $900, doesn’t sell well and makes up a tiny portion of the handset market. But it is very influential. Many companies, including Apple and Samsung, eventually add some of Google’s best ideas to their own phones. So each year, I take the new Pixel for a spin to assess which features are likely to start a trend, and which are likely to be a fad.

In addition to Gemini-controlled apps, Google debuted new camera software on the Pixel 11 to help people take better pictures with minimal effort. It also released a translation tool that automatically dubs a video or podcast into a user’s preferred language.

To try Google’s new A.I. technology, I tested the $1,100 Pixel 11 Pro for a week. Though I was impressed with the automatic dubbing technology, I walked away unconvinced that people would prefer letting A.I. take control of their apps and cameras. Here’s what you need to know.

A.I.-Controlled Apps

The new Pixel phones are among the first to feature Gemini Intelligence, which is software that lets its A.I. control apps. For example, if you and a friend are text-messaging about making dinner plans at your favorite restaurant, you can ask Gemini to book a table for two there. That triggers the assistant to check OpenTable, the app for booking restaurant reservations, for available slots.

This sounds like a time saver, but in my tests, the experience was buggy. In one test, I held down a button to summon Gemini and asked it to book a table for two at Zuni Café in San Francisco for lunch on Friday. OpenTable showed a few time slots. Minutes later, I checked with my wife to see what time would work for her. When I went back to Gemini to book a table, the slots had disappeared from the screen. (I manually checked the OpenTable app, and there were plenty of tables.)

I also asked Gemini for help placing an Instacart order from Costco. I held down the button and started reading out my order: diapers, baby wipes, sugar, brown sugar, toilet paper, paper towels and more. Because my list was long and my request was taking a while, the phone turned off. That’s because the button for talking to Gemini is also the power button for the phone, and holding it down for 60 seconds forces the phone to restart.

Gemini was so clunky with controlling my apps that I would have saved more time booking restaurant reservations and ordering groceries manually. I’m not optimistic that mainstream consumers will warm up to the idea of A.I.’s controlling their apps anytime soon.

Google said it was working on addressing the issue I experienced with OpenTable. Regarding the Instacart order that was cut short, it said I could have released the button after summoning Gemini, but in my experience, the assistant stopped listening to me momentarily after I released the button.

A ‘Magic’ Camera

The new Pixel phones include a new camera mode that Google calls Magic Capture, which tries to take and curate photos for you.

To use it, you open the camera app and tap on the Gemini logo (a four-pointed star). When you take a picture, the camera records a video and chooses a still frame that Gemini considers to be the best photo. For example, when you photograph fidgety toddlers, the software will ignore images of their frowns and blinks and pick out the one where they are smiling.

I had a mixed experience with Magic Capture. It did a fine job picking out a nice photo of my corgi, Max, sitting in a chair. But when I tested it on my 2-year-old daughter, it picked out a photo of her with a neutral expression. After reviewing the video clip, I preferred an image of her smiling with her eyes closed.

A Google spokeswoman said I could choose a different image if I disagreed with the A.I.’s preferences. While it’s nice to have that flexibility, choosing a different shot felt counterproductive compared with the normal process of taking a burst of photos by myself and picking out my favorite shot.

People generally love the ritual of shooting lots of photos, reviewing them later and choosing their favorites. Letting an A.I. bot take over your photography feels joyless.

Live Translation

The most wow-inducing feature arriving with Pixel 11 phones is an automatic dubber for videos and podcasts. While a user is watching a YouTube video or listening to a podcast, a window will appear offering to dub the audio into the user’s chosen language. The A.I. will even try to imitate the speaker’s voice.

The Pixel 11 is launching with a small number of languages available for live dubbing. I tested the feature with French, which I studied in college, on some New York Times cooking videos produced in English. A window popped up offering to do the translation, and within seconds, I was watching Tom Holland and Matt Damon chatting about pizza in French. While the translation seemed vaguely accurate, my colleague Léo Hamelin, a native French speaker, reviewed a few A.I.-dubbed clips and found the translations to be overly literal and occasionally jarring. Nonetheless, if the technology improves, it’s a strong example of how A.I. can improve the experience of using a phone for users worldwide, similar to the live translation technology that arrived in Apple’s AirPods last year.

Bottom Line

My experience with the latest Pixel convinces me that people will treat A.I. like another app that they turn to for certain tasks rather than a new interface that transforms the way they use their phones.

Only a few A.I.-powered phone features that Google has introduced over the years have stuck with the masses, including the ability to erase photo bombers from a picture with the press of a button, a call screener for filtering scam calls and a tool that automatically transcribes recorded phone conversations. Live dubbing will probably be another when more languages become available and the technology becomes more polished.

None of those features fundamentally changed the way we use phones, but they certainly made our phones better.

Léo Hamelin contributed reporting.