At CES 2025, Samsung unveiled “AI for All”, its ambitious vision and goal to bring AI to customers across the globe and to make it an “Everyday, Everywhere” experience. Broadly speaking, it is Samsung’s goal to tap into its wide offerings of devices and the power of AI to improve the lives of its customers.
To learn more about this vision and how it plans to execute it while adhering to a strict code of ethics and ensuring customer privacy, we spoke to CU Kim, President and CEO of Southeast Asia & Oceania. Kim was appointed to this role late last year, and has over twenty years of leadership experience at the company. Prior to his latest appointment, he was President for Samsung Electronics in Brazil. In this new role, he is responsible for defining and steering the next phase of growth for Samsung in one of the world’s most dynamic economic regions.
CU Kim, Samsung’s President and CEO of Southeast Asia & Oceania
In July earlier this year, Samsung said in a press release that it aims to ship 400 million Galaxy AI devices globally. What does this milestone mean for the company, and how do you see Southeast Asia & Oceania contributing to this target?
For us at Samsung, the goal of shipping 400 million Galaxy AI devices globally by the end of this year is more than a target. It reflects our drive to democratise the power and possibilities of AI, bringing it to even more users. By embedding Galaxy Al across smartphones, tablets and wearables, we’re not just enhancing the user experience, we’re laying the groundwork for a smarter, more intuitive future for all.
Southeast Asia and Oceania (SEAO) plays an important role in achieving this global ambition. With rapidly growing digital economies and young, tech-savvy populations, the region is a dynamic hub of innovation and markets here are key to our long-term plans. In fact, 77% of Samsung users across SEAO are already using Galaxy AI - whether it’s to conveniently look up information, easily create and edit pictures and videos, or to enjoy seamless communication. This is the result of deliberate efforts to localise and personalise experiences, including support for local languages in the region, such as Bahasa Indonesia, Thai, and Vietnamese; and bringing essential AI tools to more Galaxy users across our entire ecosystem.
How important is interoperability across Samsung’s portfolio—for example, between Galaxy devices, TVs, and home appliances—in delivering a unified AI experience?
Interoperability is central to Samsung’s vision of depending on AI to bring intelligence to every day. We believe that the most powerful AI experiences are seamless, intuitive, and integrated across the devices people use every day.
We can illustrate this through Samsung’s AI Home, our intelligent ecosystem that is trusted and secure. The Samsung Al Home adapts to users’ preferences, with Bespoke Al appliances that can help to streamline daily tasks with ease, Vision Al that turns Samsung TVs into conversational assistants; and Galaxy Al that supports productivity and well-being on the move, all unified by the seamless One Ul interface that adapts to every users’ needs.
The first Samsung device with Galaxy AI is the S24 Series from 2024.
And our SmartThings platform is the enabler of the AI Home. Beyond the integration of our products, about 4,400 devices from more than 380 partner brands certified under the WWST (Works with SmartThings) are compatible with our platform, offering the broadest interoperability in connected home technology. In fact, Samsung SmartThings is one of the world’s largest smart home platforms, with more than 410 million users worldwide. That number continues to grow by roughly 20–30% every year—a reflection of the trust and value users see in the platform.
Ultimately, our goal is to make AI feel less like a feature and more like a natural part of everyday life –anticipating needs, simplifying tasks, and helping users create meaningful moments across the entire Samsung ecosystem.
Check out the video below from our chief editor at one of Samsung’s largest showcases to-date in having a seamless AI-assisted interactions throughout your home appliances.
With AI becoming increasingly mainstream, how is Samsung ensuring these capabilities ar eaccessible not just in flagship devices, but also in mid-range and/or entry-level products?
Samsung’s AI strategy is built around a clear goal – to use smarter technologies to make life better for everyone, in ways that feel personal, intuitive, and secure. We’ve long prioritised personalisation, because we understand that people use technology differently and expect it to fit naturally into their lives. That’s why we’re integrating AI across our entire ecosystem, not just in flagship or premium products, but across the board.
You can find Galaxy AI even in more affordable phones like the Galaxy A56.
Mobile remains one of the most effective ways to scale AI access. The recently launched Galaxy S25 FE expands AI experiences to more people, enabling them to enjoy flagship-level AI-powered creativity and productivity features at attractive price points. It serves as a new entry point to the latest Galaxy AI experiences, making advanced features, long-term software support, and trusted performance accessible to more users in the region. In SEAO, where the Galaxy A Series is highly popular, we’ve also expanded our AI offerings to models like the Galaxy A56 5G, Galaxy A36 5G and Galaxy A26 5G – providing more users with powerful, fun and easy-to-use AI tools.
What about other product categories like TVs and appliances?
Our appliances are making more homes smarter as we gradually expand the range of Bespoke AI. Two years ago, we began implementing on-device AI across our product lines, allowing consumers to pick solutions tailored to their lifestyles. The extensive variety of options enable more users to enjoy the benefits of AI. For instance, when connected to SmartThings Energy, users can monitor real-time energy consumption of their Bespoke AI Top Mount Refrigerator. And when AI Energy Mode is activated, the appliances’ operation mode is adjusted to save energy usage. By setting a target for electricity bills, users can also get recommendations to activate Saving mode if the projected bill exceeds the target amount. Meanwhile, to make doing laundry easier and more convenient, our Bespoke AI Top-Load washer comes with three different AI capabilities. In addition to the AI Energy mode, the machine also has an AI Wash feature that can sense the weight and softness of fabric in a load, and then uses an AI algorithm to suggest suitable settings like water level, agitation intensity, and rinsing times. And to help reduce noise and vibration during a wash cycle, AI VRT+ collects and analyses data to identify floor types and conditions before determining the ideal settings.
We are also transforming our screens into intelligent solutions with Vision AI. Now available in several TV models, including the mid-range Neo QLED QN70F 4K Samsung Vision AI Smart TV 2025, features like the Bixby Voice Assistant can effectively grasp wider context and understand multiple commands at once, enabling smoother conversations, easier searches, and more seamless device control. Meanwhile, a processor powered by powered by 20 AI neural networks to optimise picture and sound quality meansusers can look forward to enjoying top quality entertainment – from streaming live sports to playing video games.
The Samsung Bespoke AI Laundry Combo uses AI in many ways. For example, it can use AI to determine how much water and detergent is required for a wash cycle.
And we’re not stopping there. Samsung has committed to supplying 1 billion AI-enabled devices within the next three years, underscoring the scale and breadth of our ecosystem and our ambition to bring AI into everyday life for even more people.
What guiding principles does Samsung follow to ensure AI remains both innovative and responsible?
At Samsung, we are committed to implementing AI in a sustainable and ethical way, embedding our principles of fairness, transparency and accountability into every part of our AI applications. We will always encourage innovation, but never at the cost of ethics or privacy.
Samsung is deeply committed to responsible AI development guided by our AI ethics principles of ‘Fairness’, ‘Transparency’, and ‘Accountability’. We actively cooperate with the global community to ensure AI safety, and participate in key global summits. For example, we have pledged to the Frontier AI Safety Commitments at the AI Seoul Summit in May 2024, and in accordance to the pledge, announced our AI Safety Framework in line with our AI ethics principles in February 2025.
Our intelligent, connected ecosystem is built on open collaboration with trusted partners, ensuring that we and those we work with uphold the highest ethical standards. This commitment empowers innovators, developers and consumers alike to trust that our AI solutions are constantly evolving and advancing responsibly.
AI brings convenience, but also raises concerns about safety, bias, and privacy. How does Samsung address these issues while rolling out AI across its devices?
During the development of AI features, Samsung builds massive and diverse datasets to avoid introducing biased data. The company also continuously monitors issues that arise during the usage of features in order to provide bug patches and reduce user inconvenience.
The company also emphasises the principle that users must be able to control their data and AI experiences when using Samsung products. Therefore, features based on the connectivity of Samsung products can only be used after being preset with the user’s consent. For on-device AI features of individual devices, users can choose whether to use the AI functions, and are given options during the selection process. For example, when using our vacuum cleaners, users can manually set cleaning modes on their own or choose to utilise the AI options.
Samsung Knox is security platform designed to safeguard users’ data.
We recognise that as the pace of Al innovation continues to increase and experiences become more personal, so does users’ data. Samsung’s latest advancements keep that data private by maintaining safeguards with a set of policies and protections that make sure you’re informed and protected when leveraging Al that can operate on-device.
Samsung Knox, Galaxy’s industry-leading, defence-grade security platform, safeguards critical data with end-to-end security, real-time threat detection, and ecosystem-wide protection including connected home appliances. Personalised data is kept on-device and secured by Knox Vault, Samsung’s tamper-resistant hardware security environment. Galaxy AI features are also safeguarded through Knox Enhanced Encrypted Protection (KEEP) to deliver personalised intelligence without compromising privacy.
How do you anticipate future threats?
Future-proofing is also a priority for Samsung Electronics and we have been working on a new form of cutting-edge mobile security. Known as post-quantum cryptography (PQC), this technology uses advanced algorithms to protect against potential risks that quantum computing can pose to traditional encryption methods. As technologies like quantum computing evolve, so do the risks. Which is why we have been working hard to protect user data, introducing Post-Quantum Enhanced Data Protection (EDP) to Samsung Knox Matrix. With this technology, another layer of protection has been added and Knox Matrix’s cross-device compatibility also ensures seamless quantum-safe protection for Samsung Cloud backups and synced data across smartphones, TVs, and digital appliances.
As we continue to drive our AI Home vision with innovative SmartThings appliances, we are committed to maintaining the highest levels of security. The SmartThings platform strictly adheres to security and information protection processes. In July 2024, we received the ISO27001 information protection international standard certification, a reflection of our security track record. Security and privacy protection are top priorities for Samsung as we aim to provide not just smarter but also safer AI experiences for our customers.