A refrigerator that acts as a Wi-Fi Hub to extend your home broadband router’s coverage area. An air-conditioner that works in sync with the fan to maintain the room’s cooling to how you want it. No longer concepts, because Samsung’s smart appliance ecosystem is building towards a vision which the company hopes would make artificial intelligence (AI) relevant for more gadgets beyond smartphones. At the core of Samsung’s Bespoke AI portfolio, are three critical elements — Bixby AI assistant that uses large language models (LLMs), a SmartThings app that’s key to monitoring and managing devices, and the Tizen operating system that integrates the Knox Matrix and Knox Vault security layer. Localisation is the next big focus area.
Bixby, Samsung’s smart assistant was first released on the company’s Galaxy smartphones in early 2017, then replacing S Voice assistant, and marked an early push into the artificial intelligence (AI) space. That coincided with the early days of Samsung’s dominance as flagship smartphones found their niche, and mid-range Android phones became more powerful. Bixby has taken a backseat on the company’s recent Galaxy smartphones — with Google Gemini finding deep integration (which was exclusive too, for a period of time). Bixby finds renewed purpose for Samsung’s burgeoning smart home and appliances portfolio.
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“Bixby is our own platform. We are not dependent on any third party. It is our own LLM (large language model) based platform and the difference as well as uniqueness which Bixby offers, is in controlling the device,” confirms Deokho Kim, Vice President and Head of SW Group at Samsung, in a conversation with HT.
Samsung, with Bespoke AI, wants to add a smartness element to their new Family Hub refrigerators and AI Wind-Free air conditioners, to name a few. It is not just the SmartThings app, or specific voice commands, which Bixby can understand. The device control goes much deeper.
“Controlling the device not only by the voice, but also if I am saying that I am feeling hot to the Bespoke AI WindFree AC, then automatically it reacts. That kind of device control is being applied through Bixby,” adds Moonkeun Lee, Vice President and Head of AI Solution Lab at Samsung. At this time, the Bespoke AI Windfree Combo Gallery AC that is sold in Korea, reacts to this natural reaction. Samsung hopes to expand local support soon.
Samsung confirms there are approximately 23 million registered users of SmartThings in India, the third biggest market for smart appliances, behind U.S. and Brazil. They say the number of registered devices increased 39% in 2024, compared to a year earlier.
There are three key elements which are defining the company’s approach to developing and deploying AI functionality across what is undeniably a massive appliances portfolio for Samsung. HT asked the executives about the approach towards building AI across the products, and methodology towards identifying features that would be a better fit.
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“We are trying to deliver three key pillars of customer values – easy to use, saving and care. Keeping that in mind, we are trying to analyse the customer’s data, meeting customers to get feedback and trying to know their pain points. From that, we are trying to find solutions to deliver these three key pillars among our products,” explains Deokho Kim.
Localisation is key for Samsung’s Bespoke AI pursuit
When asked about Samsung’s AI strategy for India, which tends to be price-sensitive in some ways, Moonkeun Lee explains that there is a lower-spec version of the Tizen OS, that has been developed for the lower priced products. “Initially, our AI tech was available in our premium products, but recently we have developed a lower version of Tizen OS, which is Tizen Lite. This has been adapted to our mid-end products that do not have screens, so that those appliances can also support features like Bixby,” he says.
The company has developed five features across the smart appliances portfolio, which are exclusive for India. One pertains to service — the Home Care Plus feature will detail any error or fault in a smart appliance, and at the press of a single key within the SmartThings app, share the specifics as well as the device details to the service centre.
The Family Hub refrigerator which has a large 32-inch screen with AI Vision to suggest recipes based on what is stored inside as well as the ability to become a Wi-Fi range extender, will now support Hindi, Bengali, Marathi, Gujarati, Oriya, Tamil, Malayalam, Punjabi, and Telugu. That is, nine Indian languages, in addition to English.
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The Smart ACs now work in sync with a ceiling fan that may be operational in the room. “After 30 minutes of air conditioner use, considering the cooling effect of the ceiling fan, the air conditioner either gives an alarm to increase the temperature, or adjusts it automatically based on the user’s pre-settings. Therefore, customers don’t need to turn off the AC, turn on ceiling fan, and vice versa,” explains Sungil Hahm, Vice President for SW R&D Group at Samsung.
For Samsung, next on the agenda is localisation of AI and powerful voice-based engines. “Our regional research centres are also trying their best to localise,” explains Sungil Hahm. “We have Bixby in English. At this time, Bixby in Hindi is under development. There is a ‘Hinglish’ Bixby (this is a mix of English and Hindi words, how we often structure sentences in conversation) which we have released recently,” he adds.
Samsung hopes that 70% of the sales for these product lines in India, will be from the AI powered products. If these product lines are able to replicate even a fraction of the success Samsung Galaxy smartphones have had, those numbers will be huge. Key to that will be a versatile portfolio across price points, which will get more users to try AI. It is already happening. The WindFree air-conditioning portfolio, for instance, is priced upwards of ₹43,990 while the Bespoke AI refrigerator range with SmartThings connectivity is priced ₹46,990 onwards. These must provide a template of affordability. The smartphone inspiration with Bespoke AI is clear, encompassing Bixby, SmartThings, Tizen and Knox.
