According to the boss of the mobile division of Samsung, the South Korean company is creating its Galaxy AI suite of artificial intelligence capabilities exclusively for the Chinese market in an effort to reclaim market share that local competitors have destroyed.

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 behemoth now hopes AI can provide it with the capabilities its devices require in order to draw in Chinese customers.

“We are particularly developing and we intend to particularly develop our Galaxy AI capabilities for that market,” TM Roh, the president of Samsung’s mobile division, stated in an interview in Korean through a translator.

“I believe by making efforts to create mobile AI for China, mobile AI that can satisfy that will be wanted by the Chinese consumers, by advancing this technology that will contribute to the recovery we’re going to have in the Chinese market,” he said.

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 businesses.

For instance, as part of their collaboration, the two companies included Baidu’s Ernie chatbot this year into Samsung’s Galaxy S24 handsets.

Because Beijing controls the internet and there are stringent rules around 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 Chinese 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.

The introduction of AI features to China “won’t make a massive difference” to its fortunes, according to Francisco Jeronimo, vice president for devices research at IDC for Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. This is because Chinese players are also introducing rival applications, and brand awareness of Samsung is too low.

“We all know that China is a leading market and country in AI. What can Samsung bring to the market is so unique for Chinese consumers to chuck away their Huawei, Xiaomi and Honor smartphone and buy a Samsung?” Jeronimo questioned.

Roh acknowledged that there is “more heat than anywhere else” in the smartphone industry in China.

According to him, Samsung’s approach in China centres on launching high-end products and growing its retail sales and distribution networks.

“Currently, although piecemeal, but we are making progress step by step, we are putting together our efforts to create the products and features that will be wanted by the consumers and that can satisfy the consumers out there,” Roh said.

(Adapted from CNBC.com)