Artificial Intelligence or AI is all the tech industry can talk about these days. It’s the latest buzzword and if what we’re seeing right now is any indication, 2024 is going to be the year of AI. Samsung has been talking up its AI credentials as well. The company has already revealed that it has focused heavily on improving AI for its devices with the new Exynos 2400 chipset that’s coming with the Galaxy S24 series.
Beyond the general features that people expect, such as stable diffusion which lets you create AI images based on prompts and photo expansion that intelligently expands what you captured, does AI have the potential to significantly improve other Samsung services that have so far found to be lacking?
Bixby comes to mind as one such service. It was already playing a game of catchup ever since it was unveiled. Google Assistant had become popular by then and Siri was already synonymous with digital assistants. Since Samsung couldn’t prevent Assistant from running on its devices, Bixby had to compete with it, and users weren’t really interested in picking it over Assistant.
However, with AI, Bixby has significant potential for greatness. For example, it could intelligently provide package tracking and send updates about the delivery process, freeing the need for users to manually follow up on all of their online orders and check the delivery schedules. Integration with delivery services could enable users to make changes to their delivery preferences using voice commands, adding a new layer of convenience and flexibility to the process.
Similar integrations could prove to be useful in other industries as well. Imagine asking Bixby what gate your flight is departing from and it being able to pull all of that information dynamically, even sending you an urgent reminder if there’s a gate change.
Samsung has made significant strides in improving the conversational ability of Bixby. This can be further improved with the power of AI, particularly with the synergies that exist across Samsung’s entire service ecosystem. For example, users could talk to Bixby about Samsung Health, it could provide feedback and reminders to hit those daily goals, share diet tips at meal times, etc. Imagine asking Bixby to provide you with a customized recipe that hits your macro goals. The possibilities here are endless.
We’ll undoubtedly be seeing a lot more AI integration in digital assistants from next year. There’s already talk of Google building a separate AI-based assistant called Pixie for its Pixel smartphones. Pixie is said to be exclusive to the company’s devices. Apple will likely push for more AI integration for Siri as well.
There’s no reason why Samsung shouldn’t move in this direction as well, particularly because Bixby has already been trying to compete from a position of weakness. With all of the work that Samsung has done to improve AI on its custom chips, there are more ways than one for the company to harness that power and provide users with experiences that they’ll love using.
There’s always the possibility that this AI craze is going to lead to a lot of features that don’t offer much usability beyond the novelty of it all. We’ll undoubtedly see many examples of this from all manufacturers in the coming months. If an AI future is to be truly adopted, the focus should most certainly be on quality over quantity.
