Here’s a tidbit I’d missed – in their 2017 fleet of phones which consist of Xperia XA1, XA1 Ultra, XZs, and XZ Premium, Sony is incorporating something called Xperia Actions. According to their official description,

 Xperia Actions work to make life easier—just when you need them to. 

But I think there’s a bit more to it than that, as this video shows.

It’s worth noting that there is clearly some manual automation that the user must trigger to take place, which is fine on its own, but part of the pitch is that the feature

 learns and adapts based on how you use your phone. 

One of the biggest uses for personal assistant software on mobile like Siri is that it allows you to seek help like checking sport scores, sending an SMS, or booking an Uber. Though this software doesn’t seem to be tied to a specific Sony assistant (yet?), it’s clear that it’s moving in a direction where your phone is more proactive with what you do that what personal assistants offer. If you regularly get in bed by 11pm, why not have it dim your screen and turn off the sound if that’s a habit you typically perform around the same time every night?

As it stands, the scope of Xperia Actions is still quite limited but this an example of machine learning that can truly impact a user’s day to day life. Hopefully this is a path that Sony pursues hard and brings to their other devices like their TVs and even PlayStation.