Let’s talk about the Samsung Galaxy S26 for a second.

Samsung just dropped a phone that comes with not one, not two, but three AI assistants living inside it at the same time. And that actually sounds cool until you stop and think: wait, why do I need three brains in my pocket? Didn't one used to be enough?

Before you answer that, let’s get to meet the trio.

The Three AIs Riding in Your New Samsung

The first is theGoogle Gemini. This is the default brain and the one quietly running in the background of almost everything you do.

Need to write a quick message? Your go to is Gemini. If you want a summary of that long article you saved, Gemini is the one for you.

It is basically built into the operating system itself, which means it is less of a feature and more of a foundation. You might not even notice it working half the time and that is kind of the point.

Next, we have Bixby. Samsung's OG assistant is still here, and it has been upgraded.

Bixby is the one that actually controls your phone. From the brightness to alarms to app routines, settings and every other feature you can think of.

It is less of a chatbot and more of a very obedient manager for your device. You tell it what to do with your phone and it does it.

The upgrade means it now understands more natural language, so you don't have to speak like a robot to get it to listen.

And the newest kid in the trio isPerplexity AI. This one dropped in 2026 and it is triggered by saying "Hey Plex."

It is essentially a smarter, more conversational version of a search engine. Instead of throwing you ten links and wishing you luck, it actually answers your question in plain language and pulls real-time info to back it up.

Think of it as that research assistant your project-writing self desperately needed.

So in short, Gemini is the planner, Bixby is the do-er, and Perplexity is the researcher. Each one has a lane and stays in it.

Okay But... Why Three?

The truth these tech companies don’t want to say but are basically admitting through their every action is that one AI can't do everything well.

You know that dream of a single, all-knowing super assistant that handles your whole digital life? Yeah, it is not here yet. Maybe it never will be.

So instead of waiting for perfection, Samsung's strategy is to build an ecosystem, a team of specialized AIs that each handle a different part of your life. And to be honest, that logic makes sense on paper.

What is also changing is how these AIs work. Your phone is no longer just sitting there waiting for you to say something. It is starting to act on its own.

It is suggesting replies before you type them, opening apps before you ask, sending you little nudges when it thinks you need a reminder.

Samsung is calling this the shift from assistants to agents. Your phone is going from reactive to proactive.

Which sounds amazing. Until it doesn't.

The Part Nobody's Talking About

Let's be real for a second.

Most people barely use one voice assistant. A huge chunk of Android users have literally disabled Google Assistant at some point because they found it more annoying than helpful.

And now we are supposed to manage three wake words, "Hey Google," "Hi Bixby," and "Hey Plex" without actually losing our minds?

That is like a group chat nobody asked to be added to . There is also the fact that nobody was complaining about this problem.

No one was out here posting on X saying, "I really wish my phone had three competing AIs fighting for my attention." This feature exists because tech companies need it to exist, not because users demanded it.

And then there are the real cons. Every extra AI listening on your device means more of your data being processed, more battery being drained, and more mobile data being used in the background.

If you are in a country like Nigeria where data costs actually matter, three AI systems running quietly in the background is not a flex, that is a massive data expense waiting for you at the end of the month.

Another uncomfortable truth is that your phone has become a battlefield. You might ask the battlefield of what/who? Okay, take a look at this.

Google wants Gemini on every device on earth. Samsung wants to prove Bixby is still relevant. Perplexity wants distribution and getting pre-installed on millions of Galaxy phones is the fastest way to get it.

You, the user, are not the reason your phone has three AI assistants. You are just the location where the battle is happening.

So, Do You Need Any of Them?

Maybe. One of them, probably. All three? Almost definitely not.

The bigger question isn't really "which AI should I use?" It is the one Samsung doesn't want to ask you directly: how much do you actually want your phone to think for you?

Because smartphones are not just tools anymore. They are slowly becoming the thing that makes decisions around your life, what to reply, when to leave, what to look up next.

And at some point, between the three wake words and the proactive nudges and the background agents, you have to decide where your brain ends and your phone's begins.

That is not a tech question. That is a you question.