Samsung's AI Strategy: Blending Into the Background

In an artificial intelligence market dominated by spectacle and hype, Samsung Electronics is taking a deliberately different approach. The company's Europe CEO, Simon Sung, has outlined a strategy that prioritizes seamless integration over flashy standalone features.

The focus is on creating AI that provides genuine utility in everyday life rather than serving as a novelty item. This philosophy guides everything from smartphone assistants to smart home appliances, positioning Samsung as a company that builds intelligence into the fabric of daily routines rather than offering it as a separate product.

Samsung's approach to artificial intelligence stands in stark contrast to competitors like OpenAI, which offers standalone products such as ChatGPT. While other companies market AI as a destination, Samsung is building it into the devices people already use.

Simon Sung, CEO of Samsung Electronics Europe, emphasized this distinction in a recent interview. He explained that the company's strategy is "about AI that is genuinely useful and unobtrusive."

The focus is firmly on everyday value rather than novelty.

This philosophy manifests in products that respond to user needs without requiring constant interaction or activation. Whether it's a smart home that adjusts automatically or appliances that coordinate daily routines, the intelligence works in the background.

Behind this consumer-facing strategy lies significant technological investment. Samsung has developed its own large language models called Samsung Gauss, demonstrating the company's commitment to in-house AI capabilities.

However, unlike OpenAI's approach of selling ChatGPT as a standalone product, Samsung integrates its AI technology into existing product lines. The company's consumer-facing efforts center on the Galaxy AI assistant, which is built directly into Samsung smartphones.

This assistant uses a hybrid approach, combining Samsung's in-house AI with technology developed by partners such as Google. Similar to Google's assistant on Pixel smartphones, Galaxy AI can perform tasks including:

• Live translation during calls
• Real-time transcription of conversations
• Contextual assistance based on user activity

The shift represents a fundamental change in how consumers interact with artificial intelligence.

The shift is from AI as a feature you turn on to AI as a companion that works alongside you.

Samsung's vision extends beyond individual devices to create what Sung describes as "a coherent, responsive environment that adapts to real life." This vision was showcased at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in early January, where Samsung demonstrated TVs, kitchen appliances, and washing machines featuring advanced sensors and voice recognition.

The company's position as a producer of memory chips used in PCs and data centers provides additional context for its AI strategy. In earnings guidance shared earlier this month, Samsung projected that profits would triple in the final quarter of 2025, driven by surging demand for memory chips needed to power AI models.

This dual role—as both a consumer electronics manufacturer and a critical supplier of AI infrastructure components—gives Samsung unique insight into the entire AI ecosystem.

The company's AI strategy isn't just external; it's reshaping how Samsung operates internally. According to Sung, Samsung Electronics provides training and encourages information exchanges between product, design, engineering, and marketing teams.

This cross-functional approach ensures that AI fluency grows across the organization rather than remaining isolated within specific departments. The goal is to create a unified understanding of how artificial intelligence should function across all product categories.

Because we're building AI into TVs, appliances, mobile devices, and connected services simultaneously, employees naturally think about intelligence as a shared layer across the entire experience, not as a stand-alone feature.

This organizational shift supports the broader strategy of creating seamless, integrated experiences rather than disconnected smart features.

Samsung's strategy represents a calculated bet on the future of artificial intelligence. Rather than competing in the crowded market for standalone AI products, the company is positioning itself as the provider of ambient intelligence—technology that enhances daily life without demanding attention.

This approach may prove particularly valuable as consumers become increasingly fatigued by the constant need to learn new AI tools and interfaces. By making intelligence a natural part of existing devices and routines, Samsung is betting that the most successful AI will be the kind users barely notice.

The company's recent financial performance, with projected profits tripling in the final quarter of 2025, suggests that demand for AI-powered technology is indeed surging. Whether Samsung's background approach will win out over more visible AI competitors remains to be seen, but the strategy offers a compelling alternative in an increasingly crowded market.