Samsung teases that the Galaxy S25 could be a ‘true AI companion’

Bixby custom voice feature alongside Apple's personal voice on iOS 17

Bixby on a Samsung phone (Image credit: Future / Philip Berne)

A Galaxy Unpacked teaser says "a true AI companion" is coming
The video shows an AI assistant being given complex instructions
This is likely to be an upgrade to Bixby, which could come to the Galaxy S25 and other Samsung phones

We were always expecting the Samsung Galaxy S25 series to feature new and improved AI features, and now Samsung itself has hinted that we could see some major AI upgrades.

In the company’s latest teaser for Galaxy Unpacked – the January 22 event at which the Samsung Galaxy S25 series will almost certainly be unveiled – Samsung has teased the arrival of “a true AI companion.”

The company uses those exact words in a brief video in which we see someone ask an AI assistant to find them a pet-friendly Italian restaurant with outdoor seating. They ask for all that in a single request, and also ask for the information to be added to their calendar and sent to someone else.

A true AI companion is coming | Samsung - YouTube

Watch On

This sort of request is well beyond what Bixby, Samsung’s digital assistant, is capable of currently. Or at least that's the case outside China – Bixby has already had a ChatGPT-like overhaul in China, and this teaser suggests the same upgrade will be going global soon.

Samsung says its currently China-only Bixby upgrade can understand "complex user instructions" that combine multiple commands in a single sentence, which is exactly what we see in this teaser video.

It also has on-screen awareness, so you can ask it about things on your phone’s display, and it has a more modern interface than the Bixby we’re used to.

Reserve the next Samsung Galaxy device today

Samsung Unpacked: reserve the next Galaxy smartphone now and get $50 Samsung credit
It's that time of the year again, folks. Reservations are now open for the upcoming new Galaxy smartphones – almost certainly the Galaxy S25 range. Simply sign up by email, and you'll get $50 Samsung credit on the house when it comes time to preorder, as well as the chance to win $5,000 in a sweepstake. These devices will be officially unveiled at the Samsung Unpacked event on January 22, so stay tuned for updates.

An AI upgrade for phones new and old

So with the global launch of this Bixby upgrade presumably being announced at Galaxy Unpacked, it may well be available on the Samsung Galaxy S25 out of the box – and since this is already available in China we know it doesn’t require the power of the Galaxy S25, so we might well see this come to some existing Samsung handsets too.

That said, we’d expect some of the very best new AI features to be reserved for the Galaxy S25 series, either because they require the power of its new chipset, or just as a selling point. It’s also very possible that Bixby itself will run faster on the upcoming phones.

We’ll find out soon, and TechRadar will be in attendance at the Samsung Galaxy S25 launch, so stay tuned for that. In the meantime, stick with TechRadar and we’ll bring you all the Galaxy S25 news, leaks, and teasers ahead of the full announcement.

TOPICS

James is a freelance phones, tablets and wearables writer and sub-editor at TechRadar. He has a love for everything ‘smart’, from watches to lights, and can often be found arguing with AI assistants or drowning in the latest apps. James also contributes to 3G.co.uk, 4G.co.uk and 5G.co.uk and has written for T3, Digital Camera World, Clarity Media and others, with work on the web, in print and on TV.