Samsung’s real CES story isn’t products. It’s the house

That line – companion for AI residing – issues. As a result of it indicators how far Samsung has travelled in simply a few years. In 2024, the corporate first stood on the CES stage speaking about “AI for all.” In 2025, it started connecting the dots. In 2026, these dots are lastly beginning to appear like an image.

“Annually we’ve been making steps in direction of that future imaginative and prescient of the totally agentic, autonomous residence,” Stransky says. “And now it’s starting to chop by way of in a means that’s not about hype. It’s not AI for AI’s sake. It’s turning into actionable and tangible.”

That shift – from spectacle to substance – is the actual Samsung story at CES this yr.

From merchandise to programs

Samsung has all the time been a product firm. Telephones, TVs, fridges, washing machines, wearables, laptops – the listing is lengthy sufficient to really feel nearly unintended, a by-product of its conglomerate roots. For years, that breadth created inner silos and exterior confusion. Good gadgets, bought brilliantly, however largely in isolation.

What’s modified is that Samsung has stopped treating that sprawl as a complication and began treating it as a bonus.

“Our largest differentiating profit is that we’re the one model that has all of those gadgets throughout all of those classes,” Stransky says. “You’ll all the time want your cell phone for the measurement, the monitoring and the connection between your TV and your fridge, your washer dryer. It’s within the ecosystem that we expect now we have our best profit.”

That perception now runs by way of every little thing Samsung confirmed at CES. TVs are positioned not simply as screens, however as hubs. Home equipment don’t simply work; they speak. Wearables feed into well being insights. SmartThings acts because the connective tissue, quietly doing the laborious work within the background.

The result’s an organization now not optimizing particular person moments, however designing for system-level worth. Or as Stransky places it: “Our merchandise are nice by themselves. However they’re even higher once they’re linked.”

Promoting the sum, not the components

This shift has massive implications for advertising and marketing – and Samsung is aware of it.

In 2025, the corporate ran its first main cross-line-of-business marketing campaign, ‘SmartThings meets AI House.’ The concept was easy however profound. Cease promoting a washer that finishes in 68 minutes. Begin promoting time again. Much less stress. Simpler household planning. Larger-order advantages.

“That was the start of what we’re going to speak about extra from a advertising and marketing perspective,” Stransky says. “This concept that we actually are higher collectively.”

It’s a delicate however necessary evolution. Samsung isn’t abandoning specs – “you continue to need to know the megapixels before you purchase” – nevertheless it’s layering which means on high of efficiency. Enjoyment. Well being. Peace of thoughts. Dwelling higher, not simply sooner.

And the numbers clarify why this issues. Immediately, Samsung merchandise are in roughly three-quarters of US households. However solely round 1 / 4 of these houses have three or extra Samsung gadgets. Telephones and TVs dominate. All the pieces else trails.

“That’s the quantity I need to enhance,” Stransky says. “These are the households which are going to get the higher-order advantages out of Samsung.”

In different phrases, the expansion alternative isn’t simply market share. It’s depth of relationship.

The battle for the house

All of which factors to a a lot greater contest enjoying out beneath the floor of CES. Checked out within the spherical, that is now not a narrative about successful particular person classes. Telephones, TVs and home equipment nonetheless matter, however the greater prize sits above them. The true contest is the house itself – and the power to outline how know-how, knowledge and AI quietly knit on a regular basis life collectively. Samsung’s CES displaying makes clear that class management is turning into much less necessary than system management, the place the worth lies not in any single machine, however in how seamlessly they work as one.

And in contrast to earlier tech land-grabs – telephones, audio system, assistants – this one is messy, intimate and deeply human. It’s about well being, habits, routines and belief. It’s about not wanting “a tracker right here, a tracker there,” however a joined-up understanding of how you reside.

Samsung’s bulletins round well being trace at the place this might go. From wearables just like the Galaxy Ring to early-stage work on cognitive well being, the corporate is pondering past steps and sleep in direction of one thing extra holistic.

“On the finish of the day, what we would like is to enhance the size and high quality of your life,” Stransky says. “Little issues at present – you left the fridge door open, you misplaced your telephone – however all of that ladders as much as higher residing.”

Even residence insurance coverage is in play, with pilots exploring whether or not sensible home equipment might assist decrease premiums by decreasing danger. That is Samsung pondering like a programs designer, not a gadget vendor.

Advertising and marketing in a linked world

For entrepreneurs watching from the sidelines, there are classes right here. First: CES is now not a product present. It’s a programs present. “It’s not about particular person merchandise any extra,” Stransky says. “It’s about applied sciences that run by way of every little thing.”

Second: storytelling has to stretch. You possibly can’t clarify a linked ecosystem in a six-second spot. Samsung is leaning closely into creators, influencers and longer codecs – not for attain alone, however for depth. “They carry longer codecs for this type of storytelling,” Stransky says. “That’s important for a narrative this complicated.”

Third: knowledge is turning into the quiet superpower. Samsung’s massive knowledge staff sits inside company advertising and marketing, not IT. The intention is relevance with out creepiness, personalization with out breaking belief. As Stransky places it, “Information goes to proceed to be a model’s largest benefit.”

And at last, this isn’t a repositioning a lot as an growth. Samsung isn’t strolling away from what made it profitable. It’s lastly in a position to speak about issues that merely didn’t exist earlier than. “We couldn’t speak in regards to the worth of connectivity till we had been there,” Stransky says. “Now we’re.”

Why this second issues

CES 2026 had its share of Samsung spectacle – Samsung’s tri-fold telephones and a 130-inch Micro RGB TV amongst them – however Samsung’s underlying story was quieter than that.

The corporate is making a deliberate transfer away from promoting particular person breakthroughs and in direction of promoting coherence: AI as infrastructure, connectivity as worth and usefulness as the final word measure of innovation.

Whether or not that ambition interprets into modified habits at scale stays the actual query. Connecting gadgets is the straightforward half. Convincing customers that the connections matter is more durable.

For entrepreneurs watching CES, the lesson is an uncomfortable one. As ecosystems substitute classes, the job is now not to promote higher components however to clarify why the entire is value shopping for into.