Samsung’s Omar Saheb on privacy, personalisation and its AI Living vision
The regional VP of Marketing and Online Business at Samsung Electronics MENA on Galaxy AI’s path from 200 million users to a billion, and why the next era of AI won’t ask to be noticed
20 May, 2026
TT
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The conversation around artificial intelligence (AI), Omar Saheb emphasises, has reached a turning point. The industry’s focus, he says, is moving away from novelty and features toward “real-world value, trust, and usefulness”, and Samsung sees its role as leading that shift. Galaxy AI’s user base has grown from 200 million in 2024 to 400 million in 2025, with a target of 800 million by 2026. But scale, Saheb insists, is not the story.
Here, the regional VP of Marketing and Online Business at Samsung Electronics MENA discusses what real AI leadership looks like, why privacy and personalisation are no longer mutually exclusive, and how “AI Living” actually translates into everyday use.
Samsung has been aggressive in embedding AI across its device portfolio. Where do you see the biggest real-world impact for everyday users right now?
The conversation around AI has reached a turning point. Across the industry, the focus is shifting away from novelty and features toward real-world value, trust, and usefulness. At Samsung, we see it as our role to lead that shift, moving AI from something people try to something that quietly supports how they live every day.
I would frame our approach as deliberate, with a focus on the user experience first and foremost. In line with our AI for All vision, unveiled in 2024, we have been systematic in expanding the global user base of Galaxy AI from 200 million in 2024 to 400 million in 2025, and now aim to reach 800 million users in 2026.
Throughout this growth, our focus has always been on making AI within reach and accessible to everyone. This aligns with our long-term vision of “Your Companion to AI Living,” where intelligence works quietly in the background to support how people live, work and connect.
How do you ensure Samsung’s AI features genuinely improve the user experience rather than adding complexity for its own sake?
Samsung’s philosophy is to design for outcomes, not features, and that principle shapes how we develop intelligence across our entire portfolio. We always think about users’ interactions with the features we add and how they can derive value from them.
Of course, we care about adding more capabilities to our AI systems, but we intend to do that thoughtfully and in a way that supports users rather than confuses them.
This is how we deliver practical, high-impact capabilities like AI Sound Controller Pro, allowing sports fans to tailor audio to what matters most to them, whether that’s commentary, crowd energy, or ambient sound.
The goal across Samsung’s AI ecosystem is for AI to reduce the steps between intent and action. Our AI systems work cohesively across smartphones, wearables, TVs, and home appliances, removing friction rather than creating fragmented, app-dependent experiences.
By supporting everyday interactions in local languages, including Arabic and Turkish, Samsung AI becomes more intuitive, accessible, and genuinely meaningful in real-world use.
With every major brand now claiming AI leadership, what separates Samsung’s approach from the competition?
Too often, companies introduce AI as isolated features or confine it to single devices, limiting its real-world impact. From our perspective, true AI leadership is defined by the ability to embed intelligence consistently into everyday life.
What separates Samsung today is not isolated innovation, but the ability to execute at scale. While much of the industry is still experimenting with AI in silos, Samsung has already embedded intelligence across mobile, TVs and home appliances, and connected those experiences through a single ecosystem.
We also take an open and hybrid approach to AI. Instead of relying on a single model or assistant, we integrate multiple AI agents, including trusted partners such as Google and Perplexity, alongside Samsung’s own platforms, giving users greater choice, flexibility, and control.
Underpinning this openness is a strong focus on trust. All Samsung AI experiences across mobile devices, TVs, and home appliances are protected by Samsung Knox, our enterprise-grade security platform embedded from hardware to the cloud, ensuring that intelligence can scale responsibly as it becomes more personal.
The Privacy Display on the Galaxy S26 Ultra is a first for the industry — what problem were you solving, and what took so long?
Privacy Display was designed to solve an everyday problem many didn’t know they faced: people increasingly use their phones in cafés, offices, airports, public transport, and other public spaces, where sensitive information can easily be seen by others. With the Galaxy S26 Ultra, we wanted to create a built-in solution that shields passwords, private messages, and other sensitive information from prying eyes without compromising the overall viewing experience.
Privacy features are only used when they are seamless, so unlike traditional stick-on privacy films, we built the Privacy Display to limit side-angle visibility only when activated, whether for the whole screen, specific apps, or notifications. The feature works without sacrificing brightness, clarity, or display quality, and gives the user full control of when and how much side-viewing is limited.
During development, our priority was to introduce an effective solution that makes a difference in users’ experiences, rather than rushing out a limited feature that does not add real value. Privacy Display underwent years of extensive research and development to integrate at the pixel level without adversely affecting screen brightness, heat management, or battery life.
The challenge was not just creating a privacy feature but doing so in a way that preserved the premium display experience users expect.
Read: Samsung’s Fadi Abu Shamat on how the Galaxy S26 redefines privacy, agentic AI, photography
As AI processes more personal data on-device, how do you convince consumers that Samsung can be trusted as a guardian of that data?
Samsung’s approach is centered on giving users control and transparency over how their data is used. Galaxy AI experiences are powered by a Personal Data Engine that analyses information on the device to enable more personalised features, while allowing users to decide which apps and services can access that context.
Users can choose which apps AI agents can use through Personal Data Intelligence settings, and they can also choose to keep more Galaxy AI processing entirely on-device through Advanced Intelligence settings. Personal information is shared only when necessary to complete a specific task and is not used for targeted advertising without user approval.
From a security perspective, Samsung layers these experiences with Knox Enhanced Encrypted Protection, Knox Vault hardware-level protection, and additional privacy features such as Privacy Alerts, Call Screening, Private Album, and post-quantum cryptography.
The company’s message is that personalisation and privacy are not mutually exclusive when users remain in control.
There’s an inherent tension between AI that learns from your behaviour and a device that protects your privacy. How does Samsung resolve that?
We adopt a hybrid approach that balances personalisation with privacy. Time-sensitive and highly personal actions are kept on-device whenever possible, while cloud-based intelligence is used only when broader processing is needed.
The Personal Data Engine allows Galaxy AI to learn from user behaviour and preferences without unnecessarily sending that information off the device. Users can also decide which apps AI agents can access for personalisation and whether they want certain features processed entirely on-device.
By doing so, access to personal information is always limited to what the user allows and to what is required to complete a specific task, and all Galaxy AI experiences remain protected by the Knox security framework, even when third-party services are involved. For cloud-based services, user data is not saved or used to train AI models.
This approach ensures that user interactions remain private and fully under the user’s control.;
Samsung sits at a unique intersection: devices, chips, appliances, and software all under one roof. How deliberately is that being architected as an AI ecosystem rather than just a product portfolio?
All of our products are designed to complement each other within an expansive ecosystem. Our AI strategy goes beyond smartphones and encompasses every category, including wearables, TVs, and smart home appliances, with the intent that these experiences work together as one system.
The breadth of our product offering, spanning personal devices, TVs, and smart home appliances, gives Samsung a unique position to think about AI at an ecosystem level rather than product by product. This is what anchors our “Your Companion to AI Living” vision. In practical terms, it means embedding AI across products, connecting those experiences through shared context, and using a platform layer that allows devices to coordinate actions without constant user input.
The ecosystem comes together through clearly defined roles across our businesses. Mobile acts as the personal entry point, where Galaxy AI understands individual intent and context.
Vision AI on TVs extends that intelligence into shared spaces, while Bespoke AI appliances apply it to everyday tasks in the home. Connected through SmartThings, these experiences work together as a coordinated system rather than as independent products.
