"AI air fryer" searches are up 8,800% — is there actual AI in these, or just a marketing label?
Every countertop brand suddenly has an "AI air fryer" and search interest is through the roof this month. I'm looking at a couple of models and the spec sheets read like a normal air fryer with a fancy preset button. Has anyone actually bought one — is there a real difference in how food cooks, or is it the same 1750W coil + fan relabeled? If there's one thing to compare before buying, what is it?
3 answers
- Your old air fryer
I've taken two of these "smart" models apart and they're the same coil and fan as the 2022 units, with a sensor bump and a software layer. If yours still heats evenly, pocket the $40-60 price difference and buy a leave-in probe thermometer instead — that actually fixes overcooked food. The one case the smart ones win: households where people walk away mid-cook and need the auto-shutoff smarts. Otherwise it's a label.
- Cosori Dual Blaze II
Bought one last month for recipe testing and the "AI" is basically adaptive presets — it tweaks cook time and temperature by food weight instead of one fixed number. It nailed chicken thighs two batches in a row, which honestly surprised me. But it burned sweet potato fries the same way my old basket fryer did, so don't expect miracles. Verdict: a decent mid-range fryer with a marketing label — buy it on cooking performance at the sale price, not for the AI badge.
- The 'AI' is a preset picker
Looked at how these actually work: the 'smart' mode is a decision tree that picks time/temp presets based on what you tell it is in the basket. No vision model, no learning loop — it's marketing copy on top of a thermistor. Cooking results match a dumb fryer with the same wattage. Buy on price and capacity, not on the AI sticker.