Summary
- Samsung unveiled Galaxy Z Fold 6 & Flip 6 without mentioning Bixby, but plans to supercharge it with AI capabilities later this year.
- Bixby’s last update in 2023 added an on-device mode, but it has not received any significant upgrades in 2024.
- Samsung may unveil AI-powered Bixby alongside One UI 7.
At a dazzling event in Paris, France, on July 10, Samsung unveiled its latest foldables — the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Flip 6, new Galaxy earbuds, and smartwatches. While the company highlighted Galaxy AI several times throughout the launch event, it did not mention its voice assistant, Bixby, even once. But that does not mean that Samsung has forgotten about or given up on Bixby. Instead, the company plans to use AI to supercharge its voice assistant’s capabilities.
TM Roh, Samsung’s mobile head, confirmed to CNBC that the company will launch an upgraded AI-powered Bixby experience later this year. Instead of relying on ChatGPT or Google Gemini, it will use its own large language model (LLM) for this. A report from earlier this year also claimed that Samsung was putting in serious hours to bring generative AI capabilities to Bixby.
Bixby last received a major update in early 2023, gaining an on-device mode and better performance. Samsung also expanded Bixby Text Call to more regions as a part of the update. This year, though, the voice assistant has not received any significant upgrades except for a sleeker trigger animation. A supercharged Bixby experience thanks to AI could easily make up for this.
Samsung may unveil the upgraded AI-powered Bixby alongside One UI 7 in the next few months. The company should open a public One UI 7 beta program for its flagship Galaxy phones in late July or early August.
Bixby is the only notable voice assistant still lacking AI integration
Samsung is the only major tech company that has yet to integrate AI into its voice assistant. This is despite the Korean conglomerate being at the forefront of integrating AI into its devices with Galaxy AI.
Google is already in the middle of replacing Assistant with Gemini, while Apple unveiled Apple Intelligence-powered Siri as a part of iOS 18 at WWDC in early June 2024.
Despite the planned upgrades to Bixby, Samsung will keep its devices open to other voice assistants. The Korean giant has a deep partnership with Google, which gives flagship Galaxy devices exclusive access to selected new features for a few months.
