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It's easy to assume there will be a lot of mentions of AI at today's Galaxy Unpacked event. Nearly every major phone launch over the past few years has seen announcements of new AI capabilities or partnerships between phone-makers and AI companies.
News broke over the weekend that the next version of Galaxy AI, likely debuting on the rumored Galaxy S26 phones expected to be announced at today's event, would integrate Perplexity's AI agent and even support a "Hey Plex" wake word. But it seems there's more to the partnership than just giving Samsung phone owners a choice of AI agents.
Since late 2023, phone-makers have been leapfrogging each other, adding new generative AI features or integrating AI agents. Nearly every new Android phone supports Google's Gemini assistant. Apple's iPhones integrate OpenAI's ChatGPT into the phone's Visual Intelligence feature, and its Siri overhaul will incorporate Google's Gemini AI models.
While Perplexity has had partnerships with phone-makers such as Motorola to have its app preloaded, and it's been integrated into handsets for Deutsche Telekom, having its AI and models baked into the phones by the biggest phone-maker in the world puts the company on a much bigger stage. It marks a shift toward AI agents being just another tool people choose to use, much like a phone app.
"The first step toward an agentic mobile ecosystem is the user getting to choose whatever agent they want," Dmitry Shevelenko, Perplexity's chief business officer, told CNET. "I think this is where Samsung is taking a big, big leap forward."
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Perplexity's Sonar API powers aspects of Samsung's Galaxy AI ecosystem. Shevelenko said that his company's engineers worked closely with Samsung's team to revamp its Bixby assistant at the framework level, getting deep system access. He noted that it's the first time a third-party AI company has achieved parity on a major mobile OS. The phones Samsung announces today will presumably support the new "Hey Plex" wake word, putting Perplexity shoulder-to-shoulder with Google's Gemini AI assistant, which is integrated into Android on Samsung devices.
"What's unique is the only other company that has it is Google, right?" said Shevelenko. "It's a real paradigm shift for Samsung to be going into a multi-AI direction, where they are giving their users choice. And I think they see this as a strategic differentiator."
Samsung's inclusion of Perplexity touches many of the company's own apps including Calendar, Clock, Gallery, Notes and Reminders. The benefit of structuring Perplexity's AI deeply into Samsung's software is that people can have a lighter interaction with their phones. As opposed to unlocking their device, navigating the home page, opening the app and entering a query, people will be able to press a button, say, "Hey Plex" and start their search within seconds.
In 2025, Deutsche Telekom launched an AI Phone powered by Perplexity. The Magenta AI logo in the center of the lock screen activates Perplexity's agent.
Katie Collins/CNETBut the integration of Perplexity isn't limited to Bixby. Shevelenko said Samsung's browser, aptly named Internet, will include agentic browsing using Perplexity's Comet technology as well.
Such a significant moment for Perplexity naturally draws parallels to Apple and its partnership with OpenAI, which has partnered with former Apple designer Jony Ive for its own hardware efforts. When I asked Shevelenko about the possibility of Perplexity making its own phone or hardware, he responded emphatically, "no."
"We are laser-focused on working with all the best OEMs," he said. "Our thing we're world-class at is building accurate AI that is easy to use and delightful to use and growing that curiosity."
And while we wait for Samsung to announce new phones, it will be interesting to see how Galaxy phone owners use the phone's AI agents. Soon, people could say, "Hey Google" into their Samsung devices to prompt Gemini, or "Hey Plex" to trigger a query with Perplexity. Options are usually a good thing.
Samsung did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
