As you approach the Samsung Galaxy S26, it looks familiar. It’s the same glass pane, same camera bump, and same overall shape that we’ve seen for years. However, when I turn it on, something is different. Your phone monitors you, thinks about you, and sometimes acts on your behalf even before you unlock it.
That’s the pitch Samsung made at its Galaxy S26 launch event in San Francisco last month. The world’s largest smartphone manufacturers are not just adding AI as a feature, they’re re-architecting their smartphones around it.
For nearly two decades, smartphones have been a portal to apps. Tap to open and navigate. Samsung believes those days are coming to an end.
“Some applications, like Netflix and Spotify, provide content, and people use these apps for entertainment purposes. I think they’re here to stay. But some other apps, for example, when you want to do a certain task, if you want to see a certain complex task, you have to open the app and copy it, or get the information and copy it. Some of the reminder apps and task organization apps – These apps can disappear because they remember all the information the agent has already provided. The agent explores your calendar, files, and notes, and then retrieves the appropriate information on behalf of these apps,” said Won-Joon Choi, Samsung’s MX Business chief operating officer and executive overseeing mobile R&D.
The idea is not that the app will disappear completely, but that it will no longer be visible. Content apps and gaming platforms exist, but they operate behind the scenes, hidden behind new layers of AI-powered audio and visual interactions. Tell them what you want over the phone. The phone will decide the rest.
“When you use AI platforms like ChatGPT or Gemini, you ask a question and an agent answers. But in the age of agent-based AI, you tell the AI what you want to do and the AI understands it. The AI does the thinking, planning, and execution. So, from thinking to planning to executing, the AI should be able to complete the task without user intervention,” Choi explained.
Won-Joon Choi, chief operating officer of Samsung’s MX business, spoke at Unpacked in San Francisco. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)
Agent AI in action
At its launch event, Google previewed how this will work in daily operations. AI agents can now do grocery shopping. Get a user’s preferences, access apps like Instacart via API, and complete purchases with saved payment details. No need to open the app. No need to tap the checkout screen.
Story continues below this ad
Galaxy S26 takes this a step further by embedding an agent at the system level. Previous versions of Google’s Gemini assistant could only interact with Samsung’s own native apps. You can now access third-party services to handle multi-step tasks in the background. For example, you can book a ride from your lock screen without opening Uber.
Samsung calls this “Agent AI,” which is why the company intentionally hasn’t branded the S26 as an “AI phone.” For them, this difference is important. Previous AI smartphones enhanced what they were already doing. This is meant to do something for you.
3 AI engines, 1 device
To achieve this, Samsung has built a highly complex AI stack. Galaxy S26 runs three separate AI systems simultaneously. Google’s Gemini handles agent tasks such as reservations and orders. Perplexity powers web-based queries. The improved Bixby is powered by a more capable in-house language model and acts as an on-device assistant.
This approach distinguishes Samsung from Apple, which still treats mobile apps as the core of the phone experience and uses AI as an enhancement layer rather than a replacement for AI.
Story continues below this ad
Choi acknowledged that Samsung’s multi-agent bet comes with complexities, and that its partner Google, which is driving much of it, is also its biggest competitor in the AI space. Still, the company continues to move forward.
“When it comes to AI, we’ve been working with Google for many years to develop what we call an AI operating system. We call it an AI OS because we can integrate some of the AI capabilities and engines at the OS level and deliver these new agent experiences to application services,” he said.
The Galaxy S26 series improves the user experience with Galaxy AI, which simplifies actions and tasks based on context. (Image: The Indian Express/Anuj Bhatia)
hardware hits a wall
The honest truth behind all this AI ambition is that smartphone hardware has almost reached a plateau. The S26 features an upgraded processor, new privacy screen technology that hides sensitive information on the screen (high-end Ultra models only), and AI-enhanced camera capabilities. But the sensor itself hasn’t changed, and the design is pretty much the same as last year’s, so there’s nothing that will shock anyone who’s been following smartphones for a few years.
Ben Wood, chief analyst and CMO at market research firm CCS Insight, said, “At face value, the Galaxy S26 series of devices is largely unchanged from its predecessor, which launched just a year ago. The company faces the same challenges as all manufacturers when launching new flagship smartphones. In a mature product category, annual updates are largely incremental, with new AI features, improved camera performance, better processors, slightly faster charging, and more.”
Story continues below this ad
Wood points out that while Samsung is trying to address this “hardware peak,” the deeper question is whether consumers actually value AI enough to care about it.
big picture
Zooming out, Choi sees AI as fundamentally different from previous technological changes.
“I think AI is inevitable. It’s going to happen. It’s going to happen. The Internet, for example, is different from previous revolutions in the sense that it has only revolutionized the connectivity aspect and has been a more enabling network. Mobile has just changed the way people use devices and access mobile experiences. But the AI revolution is different,” he said.
This is a comprehensive claim. It’s a claim we’ve heard before in the industry about technology that turns out to be more incremental than revolutionary. Choi is unaware of these allegations.
Story continues below this ad
“I think there could be some adjustments along the way, but on a macro level we still need to invest, bring in resources and do a lot of research. I still think it’s the beginning, and we’re not done yet.”
AI is a big focus in the Samsung Galaxy S26 series. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)
Will there be smartphones in 10 years?
With smart glasses and wearables becoming more and more popular, the long-term future of smartphones is a natural question. Choi’s answer is measured.
“We believe a new type of device will emerge, but it will not replace the smartphone, but complement it,” he said. Interactions will become more natural, more voice-centric, and AI-driven. But screens aren’t going anywhere, he insists. Visuals still need a surface to survive.
Samsung is risk-averse anyway. The company is developing two versions of its smart glasses: one with a screen and one without.
Story continues below this ad
But for now, the bet is on the phone you already carry with you. It’s reimagined as doing more and asking fewer questions.
