Artificial intelligence startup Perplexity AI is eyeing a bigger pie in the smartphone space in its bid to stand up against AI majors Google and OpenAI. In his latest article for Bloomberg, tech insider Mark Gurman wrote that Perplexity is looking to partner with Samsung and Lenovo to place its virtual assistant on the companies' smartphone range.
Citing people familiar with the development, Gurman wrote that the San Francisco-based startup had previously signed an agreement with Lenovo-owned Motorola about incorporating its AI assistant on the brand's devices and is currently in talks with Samsung for a similar arrangement.
Will Perplexity Break Samsung's Long Relationship With Google?
With Samsung, one of the top smartphone makers in the world, if the deal follows through, it will greatly increase Perplexity's visibility and brand value in AI technologies.
However, it could come as a jolt to Google, with whom Samsung has a successfully running AI partnership. Together, Google and Samsung have packed some of the most talked-about AI tech in smartphones, including features like Circle to Search and Now Brief and AI functions on Samsung devices powered by Google's Gemini, including in Calendar, Notes, and Reminder. Their partnership also includes platforms like Wear OS and the future Android XR.
Nevertheless, Gurman noted that Samsung and Perplexity have been collaborating for some time, and since last year, the startup has been supported by its investment arm NEXT.
Spotlight On AI
The talks between Perplexity and Samsung demonstrate the wager smartphone makers are placing on AI technologies. It marks a shift in the conventional competition when smartphones focused more on hardware differentiation; rather, it is more oriented on AI experiences now.
It also underlines the importance of AI assistants as a future smartphone tech. Substantiating this is recent research by Gartner, which shows that use of mobile apps will drop by up to 25% by 2027 as a result of AI-driven assistants. Smartphone users will increasingly employ AI assistants like ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Meta AI, Apple Intelligence, and—potentially—Perplexity's, if it sees integration with smartphones like Samsung's.
Samsung's “AI for All” objective, which aspires to incorporate AI throughout its whole ecosystem of connected products, underlines its acknowledgment of AI's critical role in its future. It is also reflected in NEXT's reported inclination to further invest in Perplexity as the startup looks for a fresh round of capital that could raise its valuation to $18 billion.
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