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Bixby AI: Innovative or Unimaginative? The New Samsung Personal Assistant

As it seems that everyone in the mobile industry and their mother has made a voice assistant, it is clear that the nifty artificial intelligence butlers are not going anywhere for a while. The trend was initially spawned by Apple, with Siri’s popularity, and is now continued by Google with their Assistant’s versatility and Microsoft with their Cortana assistant being available across all Windows 10 devices. While it may be argued that there are more than enough voice assistants currently on the market, it seems that Samsung also wants to jump into this trend, and it seems that they’re doubling down on their new assistant, making it the centerpiece of their new phone’s software.

Meet Bixby

Named Bixby, Samsung’s AI will not only represent the main feature of its new TouchWiz version, but will also have its own button on the side of the upcoming Samsung Galaxy S8 and Galaxy S8 Plus, meaning that the South Korean company has great expectations regarding this assistant. Of course, Bixby will also be available to several other Samsung-branded devices that still receive software updates.

According to Samsung, Bixby was designed in order to make their devices more intuitive to use, and it will work with several pre-installed apps. In time, Samsung has plans to make Bixby work with many other apps by releasing a tool for third-party developers to make their creations Bixby-enabled with ease.

The company also claims that the assistant will be smart enough to process incomplete phrases and be contextually aware, meaning that it will understand most of your commands even if they are vague. Supposedly, Bixby is also capable of translating text and using the S8’s camera to recognise objects and find them online, allowing users to compare prices and make effortless purchases.

Incoming success or imminent disaster?

While it certainly seems that Bixby will be clearly superior to the other assistants available now, it’s not the first time Samsung got overexcited and overconfident over an AI, as the company’s “S Voice” launched in 2012 wasn’t as useful and clever as the company thought, ultimately failing to draw enough attention. However, this time, it seems that Samsung is extremely convinced to change the way that users carry out their mobile interactions, as the company pushes for a shift from touch controls to voice controls, in spite of making their phones bigger in size with each iteration.

All in all, the Bixby assistant has a lot to prove, especially after Samsung has been parading it on the Internet with some incredible claims. However, if the company does hit it out of the park with Bixby, we might be looking at an actual change in the way we deal with our phones without any of the nonsense current voice assistants do when tasked with even trivial things. For more on Bixby and the Samsung Galaxy S8, stay tuned with us as we will deliver the latest news brought by the March 29 launch event, where the South Korean company will launch their newest flagships.