Samsung confirms Bixby is getting an AI upgrade this year

Samsung went all in on AI with the Galaxy S24 earlier this year. All those AI features are powered by Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative AI models, and everyone was expecting Bixby to get a makeover as well, especially considering how popular digital assistants like ChatGPT are these days. However, it didn’t.

Well, Samsung says Bixby will get that AI upgrade soon.

Samsung will release Bixby AI upgrade later this year

After the launch of the Galaxy Z Flip 6 and the Galaxy Z Fold 6, Samsung MX CEO TM Roh told CNBC that the company will release an upgraded Bixby later this year and that it will be powered by Samsung’s own LLM. He said, “We’re going to advance Bixby with application of Gen AI technology.” The company unveiled its in-house LLM called Samsung Gauss a few months ago.

CNBC had earlier reported that Samsung is working on an upgraded version of Bixby, but this is the first time Samsung has confirmed something about it and even revealed its launch time frame. TM Roh said that the company will continue to ship multiple voice assistants on Samsung devices, and he might have been referring to Google Gemini.

Samsung unveiled more Galaxy AI features with One UI 6.1.1, and you can watch them in action in our video below.

LLMs and Generative AI models are trained on vast amounts of data. LLMs can more easily understand natural language and several nuances, so they are better equipped to understand what the user really wants. Generative AI can convert text into images and videos. Hopefully, Bixby will become much better at understanding voice commands with its upcoming upgrade.

A new direction for Bixby with Galaxy S25?

Samsung launched Bixby in 2017, and it could perform several tasks in stock Samsung apps and even some third-party apps. However, the South Korean firm suddenly changed its direction and followed Apple and Google’s lead with their voice assistants. Once it is powered by LLMs and Generative AI, it could become much more helpful than it is now, but it also depends on how many third-party services it can work with.

Samsung could showcase the new version of Bixby later this year with One UI 7.0 and launch it with the Galaxy S25 early next year.

The Galaxy S25 series is expected to bring several camera and hardware improvements, design changes, and a brand-new in-house Exynos chip that is much more powerful, stable, and power-efficient than the previous ones. Launching the new Bixby with the Galaxy S25 series would be perfect timing.

Image Credits: Samsung