Samsung Galaxy S8 will include AI virtual assistant, confirms LinkedIn job posting

Samsung has all but confirmed that its next flagship smartphone will feature an artificial intelligence assistant.

The company has posted a vacancy on LinkedIn, for a Principal Program Manager who would be responsible for driving “the execution and delivery of Samsung’s upcoming AI (Artificial Intelligence) assistant on the Galaxy S8.”

Though tech companies aren’t averse to teasing the industry with misleading information ahead of major launches, the professional network isn’t where you’d typically expect to find such a red herring.

The company also said that AI-powered software and services would form an integral part of its strategy for growth in the smartphone market in its Q4 2017 earnings release.

Patent filings have suggested that Samsung’s AI assistant will be called Bixby.

It’s expected to be able to recognise real-world objects through the Galaxy S8’s camera and track them down online, allowing users to make quick purchases.

Bixby will reportedly also use optical character recognition to process any text within the phone’s camera frame, and control all of the handset’s native apps..

The company will definitely not launch the S8 at Mobile World Congress next month, but the smartphone is likely to go on sale in late April.

Bixby aside, one if its purported key features is the “infinity display”, which is said to cover the vast majority of the smartphone’s front face, leaving no room for a home button, fingerprint scanner or even Samsung’s logo.