Perplexity is much more than the third contender assistant: it's Samsung's plan to conquer AI in mobile phones
Samsung's new Galaxy S26 series marks a significant step in its AI strategy, integrating Perplexity as a first-party assistant. This move aims to bolster Samsung's position in the competitive mobile AI landscape, challenging established players like Google and reinforcing the company's commitment to advanced on-device intelligence. Perplexity's integration goes beyond a simple app download, operating at the system framework level to provide seamless access within native applications such as Notes and Reminders, as well as select third-party apps. This deep integration allows users to invoke the assistant via "Hey, Plex" or a dedicated side button, highlighting Samsung's strategy of leveraging its hardware to control user interaction with AI services. This mirrors past industry dynamics where hardware manufacturers wield significant influence over software and service adoption. The integration of Perplexity addresses a key strategic vulnerability for Samsung. While the company leads Android smartphone sales, its proprietary Bixby assistant has struggled to gain traction, and contractual obligations necessitate the inclusion of Google's Gemini. By offering Perplexity alongside these, Samsung aims to provide users with a more flexible "Swiss Army knife" approach to AI agents, recognizing that a majority of users already engage with multiple AI tools daily.
Curated and translated by Europe Digital for our multilingual European audience.
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