Samsung saw significant potential in Galaxy AI’s ability to sell more devices, so the company spent most of the Galaxy S24 Unpacked event talking about all the new AI features, only mentioning the new hardware upgrades in passing at the end of the event. There is evidence that Galaxy AI actually helped Samsung sell more Galaxy S24 devices. The company has continued this with the new foldable phones, which also brought some new features as part of its Galaxy AI suite.

The company was also quick to release many features to compatible older flagships, which meant that Galaxy AI was running on more than 100 million devices worldwide within weeks of its launch. The launch of the Galaxy Z Fold 6 and Galaxy Z Flip 6 also helped, and with support continuing to expand, Samsung is now aiming to reach 200 million devices for Galaxy AI by the end of the year. That’s a huge feat considering it was achieved in less than a year.

Galaxy AI is currently limited to Samsung’s flagship phones only, meaning current and some previous models. Many product lines within Samsung’s Galaxy family are excluded from it, especially its premium mid-range phones. Therein lies the company’s trump card for absolute dominance of this mass-market segment, which generates insane sales in some of Samsung’s most important markets.

The mid-range phone segment is extremely competitive. There are far too many competitors, even those that don’t rival Samsung in the high-end market but offer their mid-range and budget offerings with aggressive pricing to keep Samsung ahead in lucrative emerging markets. Samsung has had a tough fight in this market but the company has so far managed well to maintain its market share in some leading markets like India despite all the competition from Chinese and local manufacturers, partly by relying on its stronger brand equity, retail and after-sales network without getting into an outright price war with its rivals.

It’s a difficult balancing act. Samsung needs to meet the expectations of customers who demand a product that offers good value for money, while also ensuring that it makes a sufficient margin on each device it sells. As such, the company has to come up with ingenious ways to position its devices as the better option in this competitive market. “Great screen, great camera, long battery life” has long been the slogan that Samsung has used to lure customers to the Galaxy A series. This succinctly highlights that the Galaxy A series phones are “great” in the three core areas where mid-range phone buyers want the best value for money.

However, as we have said before, specs are no longer sexy and with screen, camera and battery features reaching a saturation point, the trump card that Samsung is now looking for will not be found in a better screen or a bigger battery, but in something that has caught everyone’s attention over the past year and that is artificial intelligence.

Everyone has heard of artificial intelligence by now, and even if you don’t have a real use case for it, you’ve probably played around with one of the many AI tools available today. There’s widespread curiosity about how AI is evolving and where it’s taking us. Smartphone buyers are also excited to see how it’s being implemented in mobile devices and the different approaches the big companies are taking. We’ve seen Samsung’s Galaxy AI, Apple’s Apple Intelligence, and Google’s efforts too.

Buyers in the mid-range segment know what new AI features the flagship phones have and they would certainly like to try them out on their devices. Now when they compare two devices to decide which one to buy, they look at the availability of AI features in addition to the usual specifications. There are not many in the mid-range segment that offer AI features on such devices and some manufacturers don’t really have the ability to develop them other than taking off-the-shelf AI solutions and putting their own name on them.

This is where Samsung will shine. The company has invested significantly in its AI teams and they are capable of developing new solutions. Samsung’s close partnership with Google has also led to better integration of Google’s AI services on Galaxy devices and that is a crucial partnership that many of its mid-range competitors do not have. So Samsung can take full advantage of its position here to dominate mass-market devices with Galaxy AI, but it is moving slowly.

We’ve only just seen the first signs that Samsung is thinking about mobile AI beyond flagships. The company announced the launch of Circle to Search on select Galaxy A-series models and the Galaxy Tab S9 FE. However, the core Galaxy AI features are still missing and it’s hard to say when they’ll be available. Perhaps the company will make us wait another year before it really expands Galaxy AI to the mid-range.

Samsung probably wants to limit Galaxy AI to flagships right now because that’s where the money is, and that’s one of the reasons why the company hopes people will buy Galaxy flagships. Only when Samsung feels that Galaxy AI can’t drive sales much further might it consider a full-fledged rollout of Galaxy AI to mid-range devices, at least premium mid-range models like the Galaxy A5x, for example.

If that happens, and assuming things stay the same and no other manufacturer focuses so much on mobile AI for mid-range phones, Samsung’s offerings will be in a league of their own. Moreover, they will allow for better integration into Samsung’s own ecosystem, which is quickly bringing AI to the forefront and which the company is making a particular priority. If Samsung believes that the future of mobile is AI, then it certainly can’t be limited to flagships, and I have a feeling it won’t be. We just have to wait a little longer.