Samsung could use a big hit after its huge misstep with recent reports that some of its Galaxy Note 7s were catching fire − and not in a cool Hunger Games kind of way. So, is artificial intelligence (AI) potentially one of the ways to recover? According to reports this week in The Wall Street Journal and Reuters, it very well could be one of the company’s planned tactics.
According to the WSJ, “people familiar with the matter” indicate that internal prototypes of the premium Galaxy S8 handset have a side button that can launch an advanced AI virtual assistant similar to Apple’s Siri. Of course, the operative word in that sentence is “prototypes” so what actually comes to pass is not a guarantee.
A Reuters report points to the Samsung acquisition of Viv Labs, a company run by a co-creator of Apple’s Siri voice assistant program, as a potential indicator of future Samsung strategies. “Samsung plans to integrate the San Jose-based company’s AI platform, called Viv, into the Galaxy smartphones and expand voice assistant services to home appliances and wearable technology devices,” Reuters notes.
Advanced voice control technology is a growing good bet, especially when it comes to consumers on the younger end of the demographic spectrum. Millennials show particular comfort with voice control of their devices and many consistently include it as a part of their daily lives, research shows. For example, Parks Associates released findings in October estimating that 46 percent of U.S. Millennials with smartphones use voice recognition software, including Apple’s Siri, Google Now, or Microsoft’s Cortana. And a recent report put out by TiVo showed that 43 percent of Millennials surveyed were using voice commands with some form of device every day.
The WSJ also reports that Samsung executives could slow their roll on the reveal of the Galaxy S8 until after Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which is slated for the end of February 2017. And the unveiling could even come in April, according to the unnamed WSJ sources.
