Samsung Expands AI Partnerships to Enhance Galaxy Smartphone Features

Samsung Electronics is actively pursuing collaborations with artificial intelligence (AI) companies to integrate a variety of AI models into its Galaxy smartphones. This initiative aims to provide users with multiple AI services and enhance Samsung's competitiveness in the global smartphone market.

TM Roh, co-chief executive of Samsung Electronics, emphasized the company's openness to strategic partnerships with AI groups, including OpenAI. This follows the recent addition of the Perplexity AI search engine to Samsung's mobile operating system. Roh noted that consumers increasingly utilize multiple AI services rather than relying on a single platform, suggesting that offering greater choice could help Galaxy devices stand out, especially as competitors like Apple have yet to implement many of the AI features they announced last year.

"We got into the preparation earlier than others, [and] that is how we have taken and maintained leadership in mobile AI," said Roh.

The focus on AI integration comes as global smartphone sales stagnate and hardware upgrades offer only marginal improvements. Manufacturers are betting that AI-powered assistants and search tools will influence consumer brand preferences. Counterpoint Research recently forecasted a 12% decline in global smartphone shipments by 2026, marking the lowest annual volume since 2013.

In response, Samsung has introduced its Galaxy S26 series, featuring a suite of new AI tools. The integration of Perplexity allows users to activate its voice assistant by saying "Hey Plex." Samsung has also incorporated Google's Gemini models into its devices and showcased a voice assistant capable of booking a taxi without user intervention.

"Consumers are not bound to one AI platform; they are utilizing multiple AI models," Roh stated. "We are open to all solutions... choice, I believe, is how Galaxy AI appeals to consumers."

The competition to offer advanced AI agents has led to increased deal-making among smartphone manufacturers. OpenAI is also developing its own family of AI devices. Apple, which has faced challenges updating its "Apple Intelligence" suite, recently partnered with Google to use its Gemini models and has leveraged OpenAI's ChatGPT to enhance search and writing functions. An overhauled Siri voice assistant is expected to be released this year.

Additionally, Samsung has raised U.S. prices for its S26 range by $100 for two models, partly due to a memory chip supply crunch. Memory suppliers, including SK Hynix, Micron, and Samsung itself, have prioritized producing high-bandwidth memory for AI data centers over chips used in smartphones.

"A lot of this is affected by the current ongoing expansion of AI infrastructure," Roh explained.

The International Data Corporation recently warned of a "tsunami-like shock" hitting the market, reversing a decade-long trend where consumers consistently received smartphones with better specifications at lower prices. Despite this, Apple defied some analyst expectations last year by not raising prices for the new iPhone 17 family, with sales of the new devices contributing to a record holiday quarter.