Samsung Looks for AI Allies to Compete With Apple

Samsung plans to form new partnerships with artificial intelligence companies to compete with Apple, its consumer device chief said. TM Roh, co chief executive of Samsung, told the Financial Times the company is open to strategic cooperation with more AI groups such as OpenAI. Roh said Samsung research shows consumers use a range of AI services rather than depending on a single platform. A wider variety of choices could help Galaxy devices differentiate in a market where Apple has not yet offered many of the AI features it announced last year, he said. Samsung has already embedded Google Gemini models into its devices. It recently introduced a voice assistant that can reserve a taxi without users touching a button. Roh said the company entered AI preparation earlier than others and has maintained leadership in mobile AI. Consumers are not bound to one AI platform and utilize multiple models, Roh said. The company is open to all solutions, with choice the way Galaxy AI appeals to users. The moves come amid a projected downturn in global smartphone shipments expected to last well into 2027, according to Counterpoint Research. The forecast attributed the decline to AI related demand for memory chips. Consumer AI adoption reached 54 percent of adults in January, up five points from the previous month, the report said. Mainstream users who apply AI to a smaller number of mostly low complexity tasks now make up slightly more than one third of consumers.