Samsung is pushing AI as invisible plumbing on the Galaxy S26, claiming the new features are meant to work effortlessly rather than requiring users to learn yet another set of tricks.
Samsung, executive vice president Kang Min-seok said: “AI provides exactly what you need, exactly when you need it, without you having to go looking for it.”
One demo shows users pressing the side button to summon an Uber, then speaking or typing a destination while Google’s Gemini opens the app, fills in the address, and finds a driver. The Galaxy S26 range lands in the US and other markets on 11 March 2026.
Prices are creeping up with memory costs, with the base model rising $40 to about $900, the S26 Plus jumping $100 to about $1,100, and the S26 Ultra staying at $1,300. Samsung said it has the most AI-enabled mobile devices, expecting roughly 800 million gadgets, including phones, tablets, wearables and laptops, to be AI-enabled by the end of 2026.
Samsung has a habit of getting generative AI features into phones before the Fruity Cargo Cult Apple, with things like Google’s “circle-to-search” arriving early. Its own research claims more than 80 per cent of consumers think AI will be useful or necessary, while the same share reckon using it is hard, which is the kind of gap marketing departments live for.
Kang said the phone will be the main way most people use AI because the screen and other hardware make it hard for AI-only widgets like glasses to replace it. On the S26, you can edit photos in the gallery by typing a prompt like making a rainy day look sunny, and messages about lunch plans can trigger the relevant date in your schedule to appear on the side.
Some features run through cloud services, while others run on-device using Samsung’s in-house generative model Gauss, Kang said. Samsung is still building Gauss out for products and internal systems.
