Samsung is accelerating its AI development to bring advanced capabilities across its devices and business operations. To lead these efforts on multiple fronts, the tech giant has hired Juan Carlos Niebles, an AI scholar from Stanford University who previously directed AI research at Salesforce and the Stanford-Toyota AI research center.

Appointed as head of Samsung Research's North America AI Center at the executive vice president level, Niebles brings extensive expertise in computer vision, multimodal AI systems, and robotics controls. He has published more than 100 papers on the matter in leading academic journals.

He succeeds Murat Akbacak, who founded the North America AI Center in 2024 after serving as the chief of Apple's Siri AI assistant. Niebles is expected to leverage his academic and industry network to expand large-scale partnerships throughout North America.

In terms of strategy, Samsung is shifting from software-based AI agents like Bixby toward physical AI. The company aims to integrate AI into physical products, including humanoid robots, manufacturing operations, and wearable devices such as earbuds, smart glasses, and smartwatches.

Additionally, Samsung established a dedicated Robotics Business Team in South Korea led by Chief Technology Officer Yoon Jang-hyun, which reports directly to Samsung Electronics Co-CEO TM Roh.

Beyond internal restructuring, Samsung is deepening its external partnerships. It is expanding its collaboration with Nvidia to move beyond high-bandwidth memory chips and partnering more closely with Google to integrate Gemini into products like refrigerators, smart glasses, and extended reality (XR) headsets.