The following is the opinion of TM Roh, CEO and President of Samsung Electronics:
History repeats a pattern. Breakthrough discoveries are rarely the most powerful inventions. These are the moments when inventions reach everyday life. Electricity changed society when a switch appeared in homes, not with power plants. It became ours through the Internet browser. The phone became powerful through the ecosystem of apps that grew on top of it.
AI will be no different.
Artificial intelligence is getting smarter faster and will continue to do so. But in order to change the way people live, it must answer: where, how and in whose hands does this intelligence get? This will define the next chapter of AI.
AI doesn’t just respond anymore. It enters the era of agency, when the person makes the final decision and acts on our behalf. But in order to act for someone, he must first know him.
That’s why it matters where AI meets humans. Access points are where AI understands humans and builds trust. The best AI experiences will come from devices that know the user best.
This is what Samsung has been building for years. The phone is the closest to us, it is with us every day. The tablet is where we create and learn. The watch reads signals such as sleep and heart rate. Television and connected appliances add context to where we live. From foldables to smart glasses, new form factors are expanding where AI meets us. Together, a more complete picture of human needs is formed.
Together, these entry points are powerful. Signals from all devices become timely help: sleep information tracked by your watch is always available, shaping tomorrow’s schedule. At best, AI works quietly in the background, turning these moments into a seamless experience. That’s why we’ve spent years building an ecosystem not just to reach, but rather to connect moments.
Samsung isn’t doing it alone. The platforms that changed the world were the most open platforms. It was the web. So were mobile operating systems. With SmartThings, we’ve shaped industry open standards, bringing devices, services and partners into one connected experience. Openness allows the best ideas to reach people faster. And we’re not just overlaying intelligence, but designing how AI works at the core so that it serves each person in context.
But openness is not the only goal. The more difficult task is to make intelligence something personal and reliable. The world’s best intelligence should reach people through their everyday devices. But what makes it personal is understanding the user and keeping that understanding secure. This is our responsibility.
As AI becomes more personal and agency-driven, trust becomes fundamental. People need to know and stay in control of what AI is doing for them.
Therefore, trust is not added at the end. Samsung Knox protects every Galaxy device and now the connections between them. As intelligence moves between devices, it is critical to protect the flows between them. The most personal information stays on the device so people can understand how the AI works and stay in control.
The same understanding shapes the devices we build. The more personal and capable the AI, the more important the shape. A tilting and folding screen expands what’s possible as artificial intelligence helps us do more at once. That’s what makes collapsibles special: they fold into your hand to reveal a larger scene. In this journey, Samsung has continued to make foldable devices thinner, lighter, more powerful and more effective.
AI is also important for health. How we sleep, heal and take care of ourselves – daily choices added. A device close to us, such as a watch, monitors these signals to ensure a better day.
The upcoming Galaxy Unpacked is where we’ll show the next steps to bring it all together: a more personal, natural AI experience on a foundation that more partners can build on. The question that opens the next era is not who has the smartest AI, but who understands people better and translates that understanding into experience they can trust.
We intend to take this path with openness and responsibility, starting with the device you already own. We open this next chapter together in Galaxy Unpacked.
Join us as we unveil the next chapter of Galaxy innovation at Samsung’s Unpacked event in London, UK on July 22. Scan the QR code for more information.
The event will be broadcast live on Samsung.com, Samsung Newsroom and Samsung’s YouTube channel at 14:00 BST, 9:00 ET and 15:00 CEST.
