Why Samsung’s S26 could preview what Apple’s AI-powered Siri can do
Gemini AI assistant on the Samsung 26S Ultra smartphone during a product preview event in San Francisco, California, United States, on Monday, February 23, 2026.
David Paul Morris | Bloomberg | Getty Images
SAMSUNG announced on Wednesday Galaxy S26 series, the latest flagship smartphone series AlphabetFront and center of Gemini AI.
It gives the search giant’s AI tech a major mobile foothold just before it’s expected to power a revamped Siri AppleiPhones.
S26 stands out with its multiple artificial intelligence systems packaged in a single device.
Samsung is bringing together three separate AI engines: Google’s Gemini for brokering tasks like booking cars and transacting between apps, Perplexity for web-based queries, and an upgraded version of Samsung’s own Bixby as an on-device assistant, powered by a more capable in-house broad language model.
It’s a multi-agency approach that reflects how central the AI arms race has become to smartphone sales, and how aggressively Samsung is hedging its bets across providers rather than relying on a single provider.
Yet the deepest of these partnerships is with Google.
Samsung was the first phone manufacturer to launch Gemini when it launched it. Galaxy S24 in January 2024. A year later, it made Gemini accessible by deepening integration with S25. long press side button. Now with the S26, Gemini can do something it couldn’t before: It can perform autonomous actions inside third-party apps, not just Samsung’s.
The relationship hasn’t always been smooth, as Samsung spent years developing its own Tizen operating system and Bixby assistant in an attempt to gain independence from Google’s ecosystem. But in the age of artificial intelligence, the two companies are more tightly intertwined than ever, even as Samsung simultaneously looks to Perplexity to diversify its options.
As a result, Samsung has become the most important distribution channel for Google’s consumer AI, which Apple has yet to achieve despite its own billion-dollar Gemini deal.
Here comes an upgraded Siri
In January, Apple confirmed a multi-year deal reportedly worth $1 billion annually to use Google’s Gemini models as the basis for an overhauled Siri. But that upgrade timeline continues to slip.
Apple had targeted the iOS 26.4 update in March or April for initial distribution, but Bloomberg reported earlier this month that some features have now been delayed to May and even September.
The Samsung S26, which will be available for general sale on March 11, means Gemini’s most advanced representation capabilities will reach consumers first through Samsung mobile phones.
Apple commands roughly 25% of the global active smartphone installed base, compared to Samsung’s 18%. According to Counterpoint Researchand iPhone users tend to spend significantly more on apps and services.
The Apple deal is a bigger prize, but Samsung is where Google will prove its AI works in the real world; a live demonstration of the technology that will eventually power the return of Siri.
Using the Samsung agent
The centerpiece of Samsung’s offering is agent AI, and Gemini is the engine that makes this possible.
Charles Uptegrove, product manager for Samsung’s flagship devices in the US, told CNBC in a briefing that the AI assistant can work directly with native Samsung apps like Calendar, Reminders, and Samsung Notes.
“A user can directly ask Gemini to find an important event and add it to their calendar,” Uptegrove said. “Consumers can also use Gemini to extract information from a YouTube video, for example, to summarize its content and add it to Samsung Notes.”
The most concrete example includes: Uber.
Users can summon Gemini, ask it to book a ride, and let the AI manage the entire process in the background—opening the app, selecting options, navigating through screens—while the user does something else. Samsung said it plans to expand this to additional ride-sharing apps and eventually food delivery services. Instacart And Door Indicator.
This is a significant step up from the S25, where the Gemini could only interact with Samsung’s own native apps. Now the AI agent can reach third-party services by performing multi-step tasks in the background.
Still, it’s worth keeping Samsung’s reach in perspective.
Apple will overtake Samsung as the world’s largest smartphone vendor in 2024, ending a nearly 12-year run at the top of the market. In November, Counterpoint Research revealed that Apple iPhone shipments were poised to overtake Samsung for the first time in 14 years.
Beyond artificial intelligence, the S26 Ultra offers what Samsung calls the mobile industry’s first built-in Privacy Screen. This controls how individual pixels disperse light while hiding the screen from side angles while keeping it readable for the user.
Samsung said it had reached 400 million Galaxy is deploying AI-enabled devices globally and plans to double the number of mobile devices powered by Gemini. 800 million But the most important number for Google right now is not Samsung’s; Timeline of Apple’s Siri overhaul.
