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Samsung wants to strike new strategic deals with AI companies to integrate a variety of models into its smartphones in an effort to erode Apple’s lead in the global market.
TM Roh, the Korean tech giant’s consumer device chief, told the FT it was “open to strategic co-operation” with more AI groups such as OpenAI, having recently added the Perplexity AI search engine to its mobile operating system.
He said Samsung’s research shows consumers are increasingly using several AI services rather than relying on a single platform, adding that greater choice could help Galaxy devices stand out in a market where Apple has yet to roll out many of the AI features it unveiled 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, who is co-chief executive of Samsung Electronics.
The manoeuvring highlights how AI is becoming the next front in the battle for smartphone users. With global handset sales stagnating and hardware upgrades offering only marginal gains, manufacturers are betting that AI-powered assistants and search tools will influence which brand they buy next.
Counterpoint Research last week forecast that global shipments will fall 12 per cent in 2026, the lowest annual volume since 2013.
Last week, Samsung announced its family of S26 devices, which includes a suite of new AI tools. Perplexity has been added to the operating system, allowing users to ask “Hey Plex” to summon its voice assistant.
Samsung has already integrated Google’s Gemini models into its devices, and last week showcased a voice assistant that can book a taxi without users pressing a button.
“Consumers are not bound to one AI platform, they are utilising multiple AI models,” Roh said, “We are open to all solutions . . . choice, I believe, is how Galaxy AI appeals to consumers.”
The race to offer the most advanced AI agents has prompted a flurry of dealmaking with smartphone makers that control access to millions of consumers. OpenAI is also building its own family of AI devices.
Apple, which has struggled to update its “Apple Intelligence” suite of tools, struck a deal in January to use Google’s Gemini models.
It has also leaned on OpenAI’s ChatGPT to add smarter search and writing functions. Apple is expected to release an overhauled Siri voice assistant this year.
Samsung has also opted to raise US prices for its S26 range by $100 for two models, partly owing to a memory chip supply crunch.
Memory suppliers, including SK Hynix, Micron and Samsung itself, have prioritised making high-bandwidth memory for AI data centres over chips used in smartphones.
“A lot of this is affected by the current ongoing expansion of AI infrastructure,” Roh said.
The International Data Corporation this week warned a “tsunami-like shock” was hitting the market, reversing a “decade-long trend in which consumers consistently received smartphones with better specifications at lower prices.”
Apple defied some analyst expectations last year when it opted not to raise prices for the new iPhone 17 family, with sales of the new devices helping deliver a record holiday quarter.