3 Reasons You Don

Bad Wi-Fi can ruin a good movie with buffering, break your winning streak while gaming due to lag, or make a stressful workday even longer and harder. It’s not unreasonable to think things could be improved with AI, but so far, the application of AI in router technology has been underwhelming and not really even worth paying attention to. If you’re looking to upgrade your home internet with a new router, AI features should be at the bottom of the priority list, so don’t let any marketing fool you here. For most people, the speed of the connection, the number and width of bands supported, and type of chipset will have a way bigger impact on the performance of the best Wi-Fi routers.

3 Mesh routers already optimize the connection

AI isn’t needed to find the best connection

If you’ve used a Wi-Fi extender before, there’s a good chance your experience with it was anything but perfect, with devices failing to connect to the right access point, and inconsistent performance. Router manufacturers have been quick to slap the AI label on mesh routers, with TP-Link calling its optimizations AI-Driven Mesh. This tech uses algorithms to determine the best connection source for the mesh nodes, to inform which devices should be using which node.

Mesh routers from the last few years are already equipped with the software they need to establish the best connection possible back to the primary router. Eero, for example, uses its own TrueMesh technology to determine which wireless band is best for the backhaul for both speed and latency. Some have even begun using multiple bands at once. Netgear, for example, on its Orbi systems with 6GHz support can use 6GHz for download and 5GHz for upload in order to keep ping time as low as possible.

When it comes to optimizing your mesh system, hardware placement is the most important aspect. Each mesh node needs to be able to communicate with the other nodes, with a solid path back to the main router. While clever software can help to find the bands with the most vacancy, it’s not going to be able to change the physics of the walls in your house.

2 Do you really want to talk to your router?

You already can, with Alexa or Google Assistant

Wi-Fi routers aren’t terribly interesting products to tinker with past their initial setup for most people. In fact, it’s quite easy to forget about your router entirely if it’s working the way it’s supposed to. That hasn’t stopped those designing the software from adding voice assistants to their software to make it easier than ever to control the router. For the most part, they simply integrate assistants like Alexa and Google Assistant with several preset commands available.

While quickly opening the router’s app is likely quicker and easier than talking to your smart speaker, you can command it to do things like create a guest network or pause the internet for specific users. This can be helpful for parents looking to limit their kid’s time online if you’ve set up your parental control profile. Voice assistants can also do things upon command, such as turn off the router’s lights if they’re distracting you in a dark room. Some routers, like those from TP-Link, can also support voice commands to change the QoS, such as optimizing for gaming before hopping into Discord with your friends.

When it comes down to it, the number of things a voice assistant can do, and the number of things you want it to be able to do, aren’t generally that high. If you’re looking to control your router, the app or a web browser will offer you a lot more useful information, and tighter controls than a voice assistant can provide.

1 Your router already has a QoS

Prioritize your important devices

The ASUS ROG Rapture GT-AXE16000 allows for QoS prioritization based on several categories.

Quality of service (QoS) software is designed to prioritize certain devices and services on your network over others. While some QoS solutions are very simple with only basic options for prioritizing devices, others are more advanced, such as the ability to identify traffic and optimize for it, like streaming. One example of this is D-Link’s AI Traffic Optimizer which can automatically detect and prioritize traffic on the network.

Still, a lot of routers from the past few years already have powerful QoS features that can be set up to prioritize certain types of content. For example, with the Asus RT-AX88U Pro, you can set up a list of prioritized application types in the QoS. While it’s not AI, it’s easy to set up and understand a simple hierarchy for traffic types.

Another thing to consider is that sometimes the best way to manage a lot of devices on your network is to get a router with a lot of capacity. If you’ve had your router for a few years, and it’s not keeping up, you may just be ready for better hardware that can keep up with the increased demand that new apps and services are putting on our networks.

Is AI more than a buzzword for home networking?

While AI, so far, isn’t a good enough reason to upgrade your router, hopefully we will see it bring more novel features to routers as time goes on. Our home networks are consistently growing more complex, with more devices needing an internet connection than ever before. One major reason for this expansion is smart home tech. Some routers have started to integrate smart home hubs for Zigbee and Matter, while a lot of other smart home tech uses Wi-Fi to get connected.

One final, but important consideration is power. Powerful AI tools like Microsoft’s Copilot+ rely on powerful hardware features like the NPUs in newer Windows laptops like the Samsung Galaxy Book 4 Edge. Off-the-shelf routers are typically powered by fairly low-power SoCs from Broadcom or Qualcomm that do not have these features, so any heavy lifting an AI router could potentially do would need to be shipped on more capable hardware.

Related

A beginner’s guide to mesh networks

If your router can’t provide reliable Wi-Fi coverage throughout your house, you might want to look into a mesh setup.