Samsung’s Bixby Assistant Might Be Leveraging Perplexity AI to Answer Complex Questions

Samsung might have silently integrated Perplexity's artificial intelligence (AI) platform with its Bixby assistant. Several users posted on social media platforms that when asking the voice assistant a complex query, it now refers the question to Perplexity's answer engine, and shows a small icon of the brand at the bottom. This new capability is said to have been spotted within Galaxy S25 series smartphones with the One UI 8.5 beta update. This is interesting, given that an older report claimed that the integration would be rolled out with the Samsung Galaxy S26 series next year.

Samsung Pairs Up Bixby and Perplexity to Tackle Complex Queries

In a post on X (formerly known as Twitter), user @achultra (first spotted by SamMobile) shared a screenshot saying, “Now Bixby can ask Perplexity to answer complicated questions.” In the screenshot, the Perplexity icon is visible at the bottom, followed by “sources,” indicating users can also check the sources from the web used for generating the response.

However, it does not seem that the capability is rolling out to all users at present. The same user highlighted that the capability was spotted while using a Samsung Galaxy S25 phone with the One UI 8.5 beta OS. Last month, a report had claimed that the South Korean tech giant was planning to release the feature with the Galaxy S26 series, and since the global stable version of One UI 8.5 is rumoured to be released with the new smartphones, the company is likely testing the integration ahead of release.

It is not possible to say how deep Bixby's integration with Perplexity runs. The tipped capability is similar to how Apple's Siri uses ChatGPT to answer more complex questions. But whether Bixby users will be able to tap into more advanced features, such as Deep research, Labs, or choosing the model, is not clear. It is also not known if those with a Pro or Max subscription will be able to link their accounts.

The Samsung-Perplexity partnership has been in the news since the first half of the year. Several reports have previously claimed that the two companies were looking to enter a multi-faceted deal where the AI startup would be integrated into Samsung's voice assistant in some capacity. Notably, in October, Samsung also introduced a standalone Perplexity app for its smart TVs.