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There will be no escape from Samsung’s AI, but I’m okay with that

AI was the dominate theme throughout Samsung's CES 2026 press conference

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Samsung CES 2026
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CES 2026
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“We will embed AI across every category, and every product, and every service, to deliver one seamless, unified AI experience.”

Those were Samsung CEO, TM Roh’s opening words at the firm’s CES 2026 press conference. In short, if you buy a Samsung product, there’s no escaping its AI.

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Whether that’s on its phones, tablets or TVs, all the way through to smart devices and home appliances – Samsung is making sure AI will be there if you need it.

Now this might seem like overkill. Do we seriously need an AI oven, and an AI washer/dryer, and an AI refrigerator?

I am skeptical, but as Samsung’s press conference went on, I started to understand this all or nothing approach.

AI needs to be everywhere to be truly useful

AI in insolation on a device is useful to a point, but it’s limited by what the device can and can’t do. Samsung’s smart fridges with AI can scan what produce you put in and take out, providing a rudimentary stock check, however in its current form it can only recognize a select array of food.

The good news is Samsung has partnered with Google to add Gemini to its food checking AI, allowing its refrigerators to recognize a wider array of products, with the ability to also read labels.

This will make it easier to keep track of what you have, and provides more ammunition to the Bixby AI when you ask it to come up with recipe ideas based on the food you currently have in your fridge.

However, the vision Samsung showed, where all of its products use the same AI, and can communicate between each other, takes this integration to a new level.

From health monitoring to dinner plans

With is AI available on Galaxy phones and Galaxy watches, your health and workout data can be used to help inform other answers the AI gives you.

Asking your refrigerator to suggest meals based on ingredients, and the AI can take into account that you’re diabetic and have just finished a workout (using data from Samsung Health collected via your Samsung wearable), to provide recipes which will be best suited to your personal recovery.

It can also send an instruction to the oven to switch on to start warming up, while displaying step-by-step instructions for the meal on the fridge’s screen.

The ability for AI to collect and interrupt information for multiple sources, without additional prompting or annoying steps is exactly how it should work. It should be seamless, it shouldn’t require multiple instructions or continuous input from the user.

And that’s only achievable if AI is baked into all the devices we have in our lives. It feels extreme, but it makes sense.

Goooaaallllllllll… or silence

Samsung also introduced new audio and game stats AI features for its TVs, just in time for the FIFA World Cup this summer.

When watching a world cup soccer game on select Samsung TVs, you’ll be able to ask the Bixby AI to mute the commentators, allowing you to enjoy the game with just the crowd noise – as if you were in the stadium.

Conversely, you can opt to silence the crowd noise, allowing for improved commentary clarity.

And if you want to find out more about the game that’s happening, asking the AI “who will win today” will see it collate stats and information from across the web to give you the insight you’re after.

As a huge soccer fan, I can’t wait to try out these features, especially on games where I’m not a fan of the booth pairing the network has selected for the game I’m watching.

Your companion to AI living

Samsung ships 500 millions devices each year, so it won’t be long until its AI-enabled devices account for most of its active portfolio around the world.

However, as AI becomes even more deeply engrained into our lives, understands us better, and gains access to more of our personal and sensitive data, it raises concern over just how much we can trust it.

As TM Roh closed the press conference he reiterated the importance of consumer trust, noting “privacy and security must be built into the design of our AI.” It’s now up to you whether Samsung has done enough to gain your trust before you fully welcome AI into every device in your home.

Samsung also announced its huge 130-inch Micro RGB TV during the keynote, and its recently announced Music Studio speakers were also given another outing.

John McCann
John has been a consumer technology & automotive journalist for over a decade.
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