Samsung is taking a significant step forward in the AI race, bringing many of the Galaxy S25 series’ personalized features to more of its phones with the rollout of One UI 7. Starting this week, people using recent Galaxy devices – including the Galaxy S24 series, Z Fold6, and Z Flip6 – will begin to see the update, with broader availability to follow.
If you’ve been following Samsung’s AI journey, you’ll know this isn’t just about smarter photo editing or generating fun stickers (though you’ll get that, too). With One UI 7, Samsung is leaning into a more ambitious goal: transforming your phone into a truly personal assistant. It’s the same promise we saw with the Galaxy S25 series – only now, it’s moving beyond just flagship devices.
Read more: Samsung Galaxy S25 Wants to Be Your Personal Assistant
At the heart of this update is Samsung’s “Personal Data Engine,” which aims to analyze your behavior across apps and services to surface helpful, timely suggestions. It’s a lofty promise, but one that – if executed well – could position Samsung as a real contender in the personal AI assistant space, right alongside Google, Microsoft, and Amazon.
The new Now Bar and Now Brief are perfect examples. Now Brief goes beyond the standard daily summary. It knows it’s your friend’s birthday, helps generate a card, and even crafts a message to go with it. Missed lunch? It reminds you to eat. Going to the Yankees game? It gives you a heads-up to leave early based on traffic. The Now Bar brings these prompts directly to the lock screen, turning your phone into a dynamic dashboard for your day.
But let’s be clear: this kind of proactive assistance only works if the AI has access to meaningful context. One UI 7 makes strides here by integrating AI across apps and services – from summarizing calls and texts to suggesting GIF creation mid-video. The AI Select tool can now recognize content onscreen and offer shortcuts like sending a message or turning a note into a formatted post. There’s even “Cross-App Actions” via Gemini, so you can ask your phone to find sushi and text the best spot to a friend – all in one go.
Read more: Google's AI Takeover: Assistant Dies, Gemini Rises
Of course, this raises privacy concerns. Samsung addresses that with on-device AI processing, especially on phones with the Snapdragon 8 Elite chip, like the S25 series. If the phone can handle tasks locally, that limits how much of your data is sent to the cloud. I like that direction – it’s a rare instance where improved performance and stronger privacy go hand in hand.
Still, One UI 7’s biggest question is whether it can deliver truly useful intelligence across devices, not just on the latest hardware. The deep integration with Google Gemini helps, but consistency is key. Can it recognize when you're running late and send a message for you? Can it nudge you to call your mom if you usually do on Sundays but forgot? That’s the bar we need to hold Samsung to if it wants to play in the same league as Gemini and Alexa+.
Read more: Alexa+ Takes Alexa Beyond Voice Commands. Here’s What It Can Do
Samsung’s AI ambitions are clear – and with One UI 7, they’re finally becoming more accessible. Whether the execution matches the vision will come down to how well this update learns, adapts, and acts on the information it gathers. If it can do that without being intrusive or overwhelming, Samsung may have a real shot at redefining what it means for a smartphone to be “smart.”
[Image credit: Samsung]
