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Samsung is making your phone proactive instead of reactive with the use of Agentic AI
This new generation of AI doesn't just answer your questions; it understands what you need without you asking, and can carry out tasks across apps on your behalf.
It's less like a chatbot and more like a digital assistant that can take action.
To see how far this can really go, I tested it out with the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra.
First of all, what exactly is Agentic AI?
Traditional phone assistants wait for commands.
Agentic AI is designed to understand intent and complete multi-step tasks automatically. Instead of you manually jumping between apps, the phone's built-in AI agents, which include Bixby, Google Gemini, and Perplexity, can coordinate actions behind the scenes.
For example, if you speak to Gemini to "message my friend that I'm on the way", the phone drafts the message and completes the task with a single tap.
Interestingly, these messages default to SMS, which is kinda funny 'cause who even uses SMS these days?
The Galaxy S26 Ultra has a feature called 'Now Brief', providing a personalised daily summary
It shows up on your home screen (you're free to disable it) and shows you what you have going on for the day based on your schedule, messages, and context.
The daily brief updates throughout the day, showing your calendar at a glance.
Image via Laila/SAYSTapping on the brief expands the full summary, providing info such as:
- Today's meetings & events from your calendar
- Weather updates
- Commute & traffic updates based on your daily travel on Google Maps
- Reminders pulled from emails
- Suggested tasks for the day
- Highlights from the previous week
You are able to disable any updates you don't want the AI to have access to.
Is it really helpful? As someone who opens their calendar multiple times a day to check where teammates are, what events are coming up, and whether I have a meeting or not, I like 'Now Brief' for the quick access to my calendar.
Weather, traffic, and highlights don't matter to me, but that's purely personal preference.
With 'Now Nudge', the S26 Ultra can analyse your screen and proactively suggest actions without any prompting
For example, when a friend messages asking for photos from last week's dinner, the S26 Ultra can recognise the request and instantly surface the relevant images from your gallery through 'Now Nudge'.
Instead of manually scrolling through hundreds of photos, the phone suggests the exact pictures you might want to send, ready to share in just a tap.
The downside is that this only works on SMS.
While not technically "Agentic AI", it is worth noting that Gemini Live is genuinely helpful, especially if you're not particularly tech-savvy
Just long-press the side button for Gemini Live to pop up at the bottom of your screen. From there, you can 'Share Screen with Live' or 'Ask About Screen'.
I've used this function on multiple occasions, for both work and personal reasons:
- Opening a documentary on YouTube and asking Gemini to summarise the key points and timestamps
- Verifying facts or getting more information on videos or posts on social media
- Opening 'Ask About Screen' on Spotify and asking Gemini to tell me how to play a song on repeat
- Asking Gemini to write a social media caption for a SAYS gallery carousel post
I find 'Circle to Search' is especially useful as both a parent and shopaholic
Previously, 'Circle to Search' was limited to searching a single object in an image. Now it can scan and identify multiple objects simultaneously.
I've found it useful to identify the brands of outfits I've seen online that I like.
Now, you can even circle an entire person's outfit, and the AI will be able to tell you where to buy the same or similar top, bottoms, shoes, and accessories.
'Circle to Search' helped me track down an outfit I liked but couldn't remember the brand of.
Image via Laila/SAYSAs a mum, 'Circle to Search' helped me identify the names of multiple Hot Wheels Monster Truck toys at home so my son could watch videos of his favourite characters on YouTube.
Photo Assist AI is good with simple prompt edits, but don't expect photorealism if your prompts are too complicated
The S26 Ultra's upgraded 200MP main camera also brings improvements to low-light photography and videography, with Nightography in particular delivering brighter, clearer shots after dark.
When it comes to editing, Photo Assist AI lets you make changes directly in your phone's gallery, so there's no need for third-party editing apps. Simple prompt edits like "remove people in the background" or "remove the stain on my shirt" generally produce solid results.
However, the tool works best with straightforward requests. Ask it to do something more complex or that requires creativity, and the results will look less photorealistic.
Using the Photo Assist AI tool will automatically add an "AI-generated" watermark on your photo.
Image via Laila/SAYSSo… Is Agentic AI the future of smartphones?
It's still early days and quite limited. Not every app supports it yet, and the feature is currently in preview on the Galaxy S26 series. But the concept is compelling.
I love the idea of a personal assistant on my phone that manages things for me. I want to be able to stay on one screen and tell my phone to summarise and sign a document for me, get AI to search for cute shoes to go with an outfit, give me options within my price range, then check out for me.
I don't want to go through multiple apps at a time to complete a task on my own. I'm tired of copying and pasting things from one place to another to find what I'm looking for. Why switch between tasks when AI can do it all for you?
When the robots take over, I have a feeling Samsung will be our overlord.
And I'm here for it.
