Samsung Galaxy S26 Introduces AI Agent Features

Samsung unveils S26 smartphones with AI at the core.

Samsung has unveiled its new S26 smartphone lineup, with artificial intelligence at the core of these gadgets.

“Imagine a phone that anticipates your needs before you even realise them. A smartphone that learns your habits and adapts in real-time, acting on your behalf. A phone — an AI agent,” began Samsung CEO Tae Moon Roh in his presentation.

The driving force behind the Galaxy S26’s AI agent features is Google’s Gemini. Among its capabilities is the ability for the neural network to open applications in a virtual background window and manage them while the user attends to other tasks.

At the Unpacked event, Google’s Sameer Samat demonstrated a tool: in a family chat discussing a pizza order, Gemini reads the conversation, determines participants’ preferences, opens DoorDash, assembles a cart, and awaits final order confirmation.

Initially, the function also works with GrubHub, Uber, Kroger, Walmart, and several other applications.

Other AI Solutions

Samsung has added Perplexity as a second system AI agent. It functions as an “answer engine” rather than a simple chatbot. The AI can be activated by voice or a side button.

The browser-integrated Ask AI feature from Perplexity simultaneously analyses all open tabs and history to answer questions without switching between sources.

The South Korean company highlighted that today, 80% of users engage with at least two AI agents daily. In response to this trend, developers have updated the Bixby assistant. It now better understands natural speech: for instance, if you say “my eyes hurt from the screen,” the assistant will automatically reduce brightness. The digital assistant also pulls up-to-date information directly into the dialogue without switching to other apps.

In addition to agent functions, Samsung introduced several additional tools:

• Now Brief — a personalised daily summary. It pre-displays restaurant reservations from notification history or points out schedule overlaps;
• Call Screening — identifies unknown numbers and briefly describes the purpose of the call before answering;
• Nudge — recognises the context of conversations. If someone asks about weekend plans, the calendar appears directly in the chat;
• Photo Assist — adds missing elements to photos using Galaxy AI.

The front camera uses an AI processor for image processing to produce sharper selfies. Night videos are enhanced with noise reduction. The S26 Ultra records 8K videos with a new APV codec.

Display with Hardware Privacy Protection

The presentation also highlighted a new screen protection technology against prying eyes. The display incorporates a “black matrix” layer that physically narrows the light dispersion angle from each pixel. As a result, only the phone owner looking directly at it can see the image. To others at an angle, the screen appears completely off.

The option can be activated manually, including for individual applications.

The Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, priced from $1299, is the only smartphone on the market with such built-in screen protection. Pre-orders are now open.

The base Galaxy S26 starts at $899, while the Plus version is priced from $1099.

Back in January 2025, Samsung released the Galaxy S25 lineup, which also focused heavily on chip performance and artificial intelligence features.