Industry Expert Blogs

Our demand for ever higher quality audio devices continues to drive innovation. Mobility through hearables (earbuds, wireless headphones and gaming headsets) are exploiting this opportunity, at the same time driving advances in hearing aids and over-the-counter hearing enhancement devices. After a slow year in 2023 hearable product volumes are taking off again, reaching 106M units in Q2 2024, at 10%+ growth year over year. True wireless stereo (TWS) and wireless headphones are cited as drivers for this growth. Naturally, product designers are eager to add AI capabilities to differentiate their hearable products. This is already starting to happen, through intelligently enhancing the quality of the audio experience rather than through more exotic AI features.

AI enhancing audio quality

Audio quality in hearables is a powerful differentiating feature, especially in noisy environments where the quality of the components can only do so much to block out unwanted noise. This is where AI and software come into play. For example, all hearables support some level of noise reduction, but this usually can only suppress steady background noise. More advanced adaptive noise cancellation solutions use AI to analyze ambient noise and adjust cancellation parameters in real time.

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