Samsung is redefining the smartphone experience with its recent Galaxy S26 series, integrating artificial intelligence more deeply into core functionality. Announced on February 26, 2026, the S26, S26+, and S26 Ultra represent the company’s third generation of AI-powered phones, designed to anticipate user needs and streamline daily tasks. This latest push into AI aims to reduce friction and simplify how people interact with their devices, marking a significant step in the evolution of mobile technology.
The Galaxy S26 series focuses on proactive AI that operates seamlessly in the background, minimizing the effort required to complete common actions. Samsung’s goal, according to a company statement, is to reduce the steps between a user’s intention and its execution, making AI an intuitive part of the user experience.
Here’s a look at five key AI features in the new Samsung phone series, with practical examples illustrating how these technologies translate into effective everyday tools.
Now Nudge: A Smarter Way to Stay Organized
Now Nudge represents a key shift in the philosophy behind Samsung’s Galaxy AI suite, designed to minimize frequent app switching. The feature analyzes conversation context, matches data with calendar entries, and checks for scheduling conflicts, then delivers relevant suggestions at the optimal moment.
For example, if a user receives a message proposing a meeting at a specific time, the phone automatically checks their schedule and displays an alert if there’s a conflict, with the option to adjust the appointment directly without opening the calendar app.
In another scenario, if a friend asks for photos from a previous trip, the phone proactively suggests relevant images from the gallery, saving time and eliminating manual steps. This transforms the experience from a series of manual actions to proactive assistance, with Samsung’s AI aiming to provide what the user needs without explicit requests.
Now Brief: Personalized Daily Summaries
Samsung developed Now Brief for the S26 series to be more proactive and personalized. It analyzes phone usage patterns and data related to appointments, reservations, and travel to deliver a daily summary of important events in chronological order.
Instead of a traditional notification, the phone presents an integrated information card. If a user has a flight, Now Brief displays the departure time, a prompt to start heading to the airport, and weather information for the destination. If a user has a dinner reservation, it shows directions and the remaining time to arrive. As the system gathers more data, the summaries become more accurate in understanding daily routines, making the phone feel more like a personal assistant that tracks and presents the day’s details in a smart arrangement.
New Tools for Photo Editing and Content Creation
The editing tools in the Galaxy S26 have seen a significant upgrade, with Photo Assist becoming more advanced in removing unwanted elements and adding new ones naturally, as well as restoring missing parts of an image. These capabilities rely on text commands, meaning users can simply describe what they desire to change.
For example, if a user takes a picture of a cake with a slice missing, they can type a command to restore the cake to its original state, and the system will rebuild the missing portion in a way that looks natural and consistent with the rest of the image.
Users can also transform a daytime scene into a nighttime one, or adjust details in clothing to suit a specific mood. Alongside this, Creative Studio offers a comprehensive creative environment that allows users to generate content from simple text prompts.
For instance, if a user types “draw me a dog,” the phone can create a custom sticker ready for use in messages or integrated into an image. The applications extend to designing invitations and custom backgrounds, turning the phone into an instant creative production tool without the need for complex external apps.
Intelligent Agent Integration
The S26 series enhances the concept of the intelligent agent by offering a choice between Bixby, Gemini, and Perplexity, with improved ability to understand natural language and execute commands without requiring precise knowledge of settings terminology.
If a user says “my eyes are tired,” the phone suggests turning on eye protection mode automatically, without the user manually searching through menus. If a user requests “book a taxi,” the task can be completed with a single voice command, with details reviewed and approved quickly. Samsung stated that the phone is now capable of performing multi-step tasks in the background, allowing users to focus on the final result rather than the execution process.
Circle to Search Evolution: Multi-Search Within a Single Image
Circle to Search has also seen significant development in the Galaxy S26, becoming capable of recognizing multiple elements within a single image simultaneously. If a user sees a picture of someone wearing a complete outfit and likes the details, they can select the jacket, shoes, and glasses all at once to receive separate search results for each item without repeating the process.
This development reflects a trend toward reducing search time and transforming the phone into an instant visual exploration tool capable of understanding scene components in greater depth.
The Galaxy S26 series demonstrates that Samsung is no longer simply adding separate AI features, but striving to reshape the entire experience so that it operates continuously in the background. The integration of AI into the Galaxy S26 series signals a broader industry trend toward more intuitive and proactive mobile experiences.
The five features highlighted above converge on a core principle: transforming the phone into a smart personal assistant that anticipates needs before they are expressed, reflecting Samsung’s vision for the future of AI-powered phones.
