There seems to be a rather large elephant in the room of the smartphone industry right now. The likes of Samsung, Apple, and Google are investing heavily in the development (and marketing) of AI software, but consumers seem less than interested in a technology that has yet to be proven game-changing for their everyday lives.
At least, that’s the impression we get from reader comments, and a recent survey of more than 2,000 iPhone and Samsung Galaxy users found that 73% of iPhone-owning respondents and a whopping 87% of Galaxy-owning respondents feel that AI adds little to no value to their smartphone experience. That’s got to be tough reading for the technology executives who are collectively betting hundreds of billions on an AI-powered future.
Of course, adoption takes time, and Samsung, for its part, is committed to the long game. At MWC 2025, I spoke to Annika Bizon, Marketing and Omnichannel Director at Samsung UK, who spoke on the company’s “number one aim” with Galaxy AI – and whose own adoption figures paint a more optimistic picture.
“Last year we launched Galaxy AI into the market, and we’ve now got over 5 million people using it on a regular basis in the UK. It took the internet eight years to get to that figure,” said Bizon. “Once you start using something, it becomes behavior, and our job is to change behavior, so people can see the benefits.”
“Now,” Bizon continued, “you can only change behavior if people do see a benefit. So [that’s the] number one aim. The second thing for us: Galaxy AI is our hero messaging because we want to own that space and bring credibility to that space. But we also need to demystify it, right? Because AI means a million things. Look around today [at MWC]. What we’re saying is: AI makes the mundane easier. It makes you more creative, giving you back time to do the things you love. However, you can’t forget that people buy a phone for the camera, the battery life, the durability. Those are principles that will sit below every single product we bring to market.”
It’s clear, then, that Samsung hasn’t forgotten about the importance of hardware to consumers – despite the dizzying number of Galaxy AI-related ads you’ve likely seen over the past year. AI is Samsung’s “hero messaging”, but it’s a matter of synergy, not prioritization.
“If you think about hardware and software, they work together,” Bizon told me. “AI optimizes the battery on your phone, AI optimizes the camera on your phone – you can always iterate through hardware, but when you start adding AI into that, you really take the whole experience up to another level.
“[Our customers are using AI] because it’s making their lives easier, whether that be Circle to Search, Live Interpreter, or the fact that I can book a restaurant through my voice and send an invite directly to my friend’s calendar. That’s all about saving time. If you save time, and you’ve got the best hardware [working alongside] the best software, you start to really change the customer experience. And that’s the important thing. Working in a way where technology works for you rather than you working for technology. AI is the space where we see all of our [technology] coming together – it’s like a PA in your pocket.”
Democratization is key to adoption
Where smartphone-based AI was the preserve of the very best phones only a year or so ago, companies have now pivoted to offering AI at almost every step of the price ladder.
Google, for instance, offers the same AI features on the budget-friendly Google Pixel 8a as it does on the premium Google Pixel 9 Pro, while Apple recently debuted the Apple Intelligence-compatible iPhone 16e, lowering the cost of entry to its AI feature suite. Removing the exclusivity from AI will allow these companies to refine and stress-test their AI features in a way that simply isn’t possible with a limited sample size, and Samsung, to its credit, realized this earlier than most.
After launching Galaxy AI in January 2024 on the Galaxy S24 series, Samsung rolled out the same features to the Galaxy S23 series just two months later. Galaxy AI compatibility now covers everything from the high-end Samsung Galaxy S25 Ultra to the mid-range Galaxy A55.
We’ve got over 5 million people using Galaxy AI on a regular basis in the UK.
Annika Bizon, Samsung
“AI for All is really important to us,” Bizon explained. “Everybody has a chance to use AI. Personally, I’m really proud of the fact that we took the step last year to take [Galaxy AI] onto previous-generation devices – that’s over 200 million devices globally, and we gave people the opportunity to experience it. You can only really get adoption when you’ve got a mass market to do that with.”
What’s more, the figures behind AI aren’t all bad. Those aforementioned survey results reflect the current sentiment towards smartphone-based AI, but recent research conducted by TechRadar publisher Future suggests people are increasingly swapping traditional search engines for AI tools such as ChatGPT.
Consumer habits are changing, and although Galaxy AI might seem gimmicky now, it won’t be long before millions of smartphone users really are using their voices to make restaurant reservations. Consider this: cars, laptops, and cheeseburgers were all perceived as dumb fads when they originally came to market. Now they’re crucial to the global economy.
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axel.metz@futurenet.com (Axel Metz)
