Samsung Plans AI Makeover for Bixby Voice Assistant

Samsung reportedly plans to give its voice assistant Bixby a generative artificial intelligence (AI) upgrade.

“With the emergence of generative AI and LLM (large language model) technology, I believe that we have to redefine the role of the Bixby, so that Bixby could be equipped with generative AI and become more smarter in the future,” Won-joon Choi, executive vice president at Samsung’s mobile business, told CNBC in an interview published Sunday (March 31).

Choi added that this will “enable a more natural conversation and to work out an interface that supports the Samsung products in our ecosystem.”

Bixby debuted seven years ago with Samsung’s Galaxy S8 smartphone but can be found throughout the company’s product lineup, including on things like smartwatches and appliances.

The CNBC report notes that voice assistants have typically been less conversational and have depended on users asking questions and getting answers. AI chatbots, on the other hand, have become more equipped to handle complex queries thanks to the dawn of generative AI.

The report further points out that Bixby thus far has not had the abilities of OpenAI’s ChatGPT LLM, though Samsung, like many smartphone companies, hopes to add more advanced AI features to its devices.

Samsung in January debuted its Galaxy S24 series, which includes a suite of AI-enabled features, such as live phone call translations, transcription of voice recordings, video search and photo editing. When previewing its new smartphones earlier this year, Samsung said the roll-out would mark a “new era of mobile AI.”

As PYMNTS wrote, the launch was particularly important for Samsung as it looks to compete with Apple, which recently dethroned the Korean company as the world’s top smartphone brand following a 14-year run.

Meanwhile, voice AI remains “a nut waiting to be cracked,” as noted here late last year.

“That’s because the way the human mind works is not the way that even the most advanced AI machines operate, and with artificial general intelligence (AGI) a far-away goal, today’s AI systems perform best when they are trained on and built atop domain-specific, localized data sets for purpose-designed tasks — like restaurant ordering from a preset menu, or ambient notetaking within a clinical healthcare setting,” PYMNTS wrote.

Research by PYMNTS Intelligence found that 63% of consumers would use voice technology if it were as capable as a person, 58% would use voice if it were easier and more convenient than performing tasks manually and 54% would also use it because it is faster than typing or using a touchscreen.