With its S24 smartphone series, the South Korean tech giant debuted Galaxy AI this year in an effort to encourage consumers to switch to more expensive smartphones.
As it continues to expand its capabilities, Samsung unveiled two new foldable smartphones on Wednesday with fresh AI technologies.
But for the past few years, Samsung has struggled in China, the largest smartphone market in the world. Its smartphone market share is less than 1%, dominated by regional competitors like Huawei.
With limited success, Samsung has been attempting to change its approach in China for a number of years. The tech giant now hopes AI can provide it with the capabilities its devices require in order to draw in Chinese customers.
"We are specifically building and we intend to specifically develop our Galaxy AI capabilities for that market," TM Roh, the director of Samsung's mobile division, stated in an interview with CNBC while speaking in Korean through a translator.
"I think that by developing this technology and working to create mobile AI for China, mobile AI that can meet the needs of Chinese customers, we will be helping the Chinese market recover," he stated.
While Roh did not go into great detail, he did say that the implementation of Galaxy AI in China will depend on collaborating with regional internet and IT companies.
In a collaboration between the two companies, Baidu, for example, included its chatbot Ernie into Samsung's Galaxy S24 devices this year.
Because Beijing controls the internet and there are stringent rules surrounding the technology, artificial intelligence (AI) is difficult in China.
In order to introduce AI features in China, foreign corporations will probably need to collaborate with local businesses.
Given that it probably faces comparable difficulties as Samsung, Apple, which unveiled its Apple Intelligence AI suite of capabilities this year, has yet to provide an estimated timeframe for when those features may go live in China.
Vice president of IDC's devices research for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa Francisco Jeronimo told CNBC that China's fortunes "will not make a massive difference" from the introduction of AI features because of the country's low brand awareness of Samsung and the introduction of competing applications by Chinese players.
As everyone knows, China is a major AI market and nation. What makes a Samsung smartphone so special that Chinese buyers would give up their Huawei, Xiaomi, or Honor models and switch to Samsungs? Jeronimo asked questions.
Roh acknowledged that there is "greater heat than anywhere else" in the smartphone market in China.
According to him, Samsung's approach in China centers on launching high-end products and growing its retail sales and distribution networks.
"We are putting together our efforts to build the products and features that will be sought by the consumers and that can satisfy the consumers out there," Roh said. "Currently, although piecemeal, but we are making progress step by step."