SEOUL, South Korea: Samsung Electronics is pushing ahead with an aggressive expansion of artificial intelligence across its consumer devices, aiming to double the number of mobile products equipped with Galaxy AI features to 800 million units in 2026, its co-CEO said.

The South Korean tech giant had rolled out AI features, primarily powered by Google's Gemini model, to about 400 million mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets, by last year. That footprint is now set to double as Samsung intensifies efforts to embed AI across its entire product ecosystem.

"We will apply AI to all products, all functions, and all services as quickly as possible," T.M. Roh told Reuters in his first interview since becoming Samsung Electronics' co-CEO in November.

The strategy underscores Samsung's close ties with Google, whose Gemini model powers many Galaxy AI functions, and could give the Android ecosystem an advantage as competition heats up with rivals such as OpenAI. Samsung is the world's most prominent supporter of Google's Android platform.

Roh oversees Samsung's push to regain market share from Apple in smartphones, while also defending its position against Chinese rivals across devices ranging from phones to televisions and home appliances. While Apple was set to be the world's top smartphone maker last year, according to Counterpoint Research, Samsung aims to widen its lead in integrated AI features across consumer products.

Google launched the latest version of Gemini in November, highlighting Gemini 3's strong performance on several industry benchmarks. In response, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman reportedly issued an internal "code red," shifting resources to accelerate development, before the ChatGPT maker rolled out its GPT-5.2 model weeks later.

Roh said Samsung's own research shows awareness of its Galaxy AI brand surged from about 30 percent to 80 percent in just one year, signalling accelerating consumer adoption.

"Even though the AI technology might seem a bit doubtful right now, within six months to a year, these technologies will become more widespread," he said.

Consumers most often use AI features for search on smartphones, but also increasingly rely on generative tools for image editing, productivity tasks, translation, and summarisation, Roh added.

Galaxy AI refers to Samsung's suite of AI features powered by both Google's Gemini and Samsung's in-house Bixby assistant, depending on the task.

Samsung shares rose 7.5 percent on January 5, ahead of the company flagging a profit jump for the fourth quarter later this week, buoyed by a global memory chip shortage.

The memory chip shortage is boosting Samsung's semiconductor business but is also squeezing margins in its smartphone unit, the company's second-largest revenue source.

"As this situation is unprecedented, no company is immune to its impact," Roh said, noting that higher chip prices are affecting not only phones but also televisions and home appliances.

He did not rule out price increases, saying some impact was "inevitable," but said Samsung was working with partners on longer-term strategies to limit the fallout. Market researchers, including IDC and Counterpoint, expect the global smartphone market to shrink next year as higher component costs threaten to push up prices.

Roh also said the foldable phone segment, pioneered by Samsung in 2019, has grown more slowly than expected due to engineering challenges and a lack of applications tailored to the form factor. Still, he expects foldables to go mainstream within the next two to three years.

A "very high" proportion of foldable phone users choose the same category for their next purchase, Roh said, without giving specifics. Samsung controlled nearly two-thirds of the global foldable smartphone market in the third quarter of 2025, according to Counterpoint, but faces growing competition from Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei and from Apple, which is expected to launch its first foldable device this year.