Perplexity AI just scored one of the biggest distribution deals in AI search history.
Samsung's Browsing Assist feature — a conversational AI assistant built directly into Samsung Browser — is now powered by Perplexity's APIs. The partnership puts Perplexity's technology in front of up to 1 billion Samsung devices: Galaxy Android phones, tablets, and Windows PCs.
What Samsung Browsing Assist Does
Browsing Assist lets users ask questions in natural language while they browse the web. Instead of manually searching or switching apps, users can ask follow-up questions, request summaries, or get contextual information about whatever they're looking at — all within the browser.
With Perplexity's API powering the backend, those answers now come from one of the more capable AI search engines on the market. Perplexity specializes in real-time, cited answers — a natural fit for a browsing assistant that needs to respond to questions about current web content.
Why This Matters for Perplexity
Perplexity has been growing fast, but so has every other AI search product. Google has AI Overviews. OpenAI has SearchGPT. Both have enormous existing distribution advantages.
What Perplexity lacks is default access. Most people don't actively seek out Perplexity — they use whatever search comes pre-installed. The Samsung deal changes that equation. At 1 billion potential touchpoints, Perplexity is no longer a destination you have to choose. It's the thing that's already there when you pick up your phone.
That's the same distribution logic that made Google dominant for decades: being the default.
The Bigger Picture
This deal is part of a broader scramble to lock down device distribution before the AI search market consolidates. Apple has Siri plus Google and Claude integrations. Microsoft has Copilot baked into Windows and Edge. Google has its own devices and Chrome.
Samsung was one of the few major device makers without a deep AI search partnership — and now Perplexity has it.
For users, the immediate benefit is a more capable browser assistant. For Perplexity, it's a step toward the kind of reach that transforms an AI startup into an AI platform.
The question is whether 1 billion potential users translates to 1 billion actual users — or just 1 billion people who never change the default.
