Undoubtedly, the most used, handled concept, trite from this edition of the Mobile World Congress is the. Years ago it was a technology that interested only profiles with technical skills. This year he has been an indisputable protagonist of the world’s main mobile fair.
The big companies present at the event have promoted this situation. During a round table, organized by Samsung, it was clear that the introduction of AI in It has fallen well among consumers. “We are seeing a great response from users. During the first days of use, more than 75% of Galaxy AI users use AI, ”says Patrick Chomet, corporate vice president and Samsung mobile strategy counselor.
Galaxy AI, the company’s artificial intelligence, is present in more than 200 million devices in the market. Especially in the high range, which Samsung will reinforce with it, an ultrafino terminal, only 5.84 mm thick, exposed at the fair, although it will not arrive until April. But technology has also opened to the mid -range.
All these users use the function Surrounds to searchfrom Google or automatic photographic and video editing options. Part of the work that AI does consists of anticipating people’s intentions. Thus, when a user wants to erase an element in a photo, he does not have to select it precisely, as traditionally in Photoshop, it is enough to draw a scribble around the object. The AI will do the selection. Then, if we are satisfied, it will erase and generate a background consisting of the image.
Chomet emphasizes that artificial intelligence will lead to greater customization on devices. And this represents a change. It sets the example of one of Samsung’s functionalities: make a summary of the day to the user, with the agenda, personal interests, news or the meteorology of the site where it will be. Actually, it only consists of automating several information searches between different applications. Again, an anticipation.
The perception of consumers is also changing. This is noted by Chris Brauer, director of Innovation at the University of London and in the Symmetry consulting company. However, it presents opinion surveys that reflect some reluctance by consumers. Especially in Europe, where 56% of them do not believe that AI will bring significant benefits and 90% are concerned about privacy around new technology.
“This reflects that more and more people interact with AI and use it for things that are important to them. We begin to share with AI more things and in this we see implications for our privacy and our identity, ”says Brauer.
For Chomet is a matter of time. “We are still in an early phase. Most of the people with whom I speak do not know about ia. Now we are doing a lot of research with users to face these concerns. AI must be significant for people. It has to be easy to use and private, ”he says.
Another speakers, Christopher Patrick, vice president and general director of mobile devices, voice and music and wearables of Qualcomm, highlighted the importance of executing artificial intelligence on the device itself. There have been advances in this field: “The current AI models that are executed locally deliver better results than models of a year ago, which are much larger and that operate in the cloud. This allows you to have amazing capabilities on the device, ”says Patrick.
The Qualcomm manager says that two years ago, during the Mobile, they used a device to generate an image with the Stable Diffusion system and took 15 seconds. Today it takes less than a second. The anecdote serves to illustrate the race for a compression of AI models and, at the same time, an increase in their abilities.
All this will contribute to that greater customization in the use of smartphones. “This is a trend in the industry. That the AI of the devices not only performs specific tasks, but also have memory, to learn from your preferences and adapt, ”says Patrick. An adaptation that is also expected to permeate voice communication, through natural language. In this way, the user will be able to give their mobile order that would normally imply opening and struggling with several apps.
The revulsive to firing sales again?
The smartphones market has been stagnant for years. There are several reasons, from the saturation of consumers to the lack of significant improvements in the new generations of devices, at least as users perceive. The hardware seems exhausted. And AI, from the scope of softwareis postulated as a source of news.
David Alonso, director of the Mobility Business of Samsung Iberia, is clear: “IA is changing the way we interact with the phone.” And add an example: “I think it is evident in the way of searches. We no longer type on Google if we want to look for information but we see an image, we surround an element and look for information about it. ”
These types of uses are relevant to boost the purchases of the new terminals. Alonso states that in 2024 the presence of AI has stimulated sales. “There has been a different argument to the user. It is no longer only a better camera, more memory, more power. Now we give you a new proposal of how you are going to use your phone. ” , the Galaxy S24 – the manufacturer’s first proposal with the integrated – was among the ten best -selling smartphones last year, something that did not happen in 2023 with the previous generation. In total, Samsung would have dispatched 222.9 million units, 18% of the market.
This year is when artificial intelligence reaches the mid -range, overlooking mass adoption. Samsung has announced three devices in Serie A, A56, A36 and A26, with Galaxy AI incorporated. “They do not have all the features that our family has, but they incorporate the most used and the most accepted by the public. For us it will be the test of fire, ”says Alonso.
Although the company will not integrate artificial intelligence only in smartphones. One of the most striking gadgets in his Mobile exhibitor were his extended reality glasses. They are still under development, they have no launch date, final name – for now they are known as Moohan Project – or specifications that can be shared.
Only they will be a helmet that combines, augmented reality and mixed reality. The concept is anticipated similar to Apple’s vision. What Samsung confirms is that they will incorporate functionalities from Galaxy AI.
