Samsung Philosophy 2026
The Future of Human-Centered Technology
In a world where technology often feels cold, distant, and transactional, Samsung Electronics stood at CES 2026. They asked a question that reverberates far beyond the glittering halls of Las Vegas: What if technology loved you back?
It’s a radical proposition in an industry that has spent two decades perfecting the art of minimalism—where sleek lines, neutral palettes, and invisible interfaces became the universal language of innovation. But on January 7, 2026, at The First Look space in The Wynn Las Vegas, Samsung’s Chief Design Officer Mauro Porcini, alongside visionary designers Karim Rashid and Fabio Novembre, moderated by the incomparable Debbie Millman, challenged this paradigm. They didn’t just present products. They presented a philosophy: technology should not merely function—it should resonate, connect, and inspire.
This wasn’t a typical product launch. This was a manifesto for the future of design—a future where artificial intelligence is guided by emotional intelligence, where human imagination shapes machine learning, and where every device, interface, and interaction is designed as an act of love.
Samsung’s CES 2026 Tech Forum, titled “The Human Side of Tech: Designing a Future Worth Living,” represents more than a marketing initiative. It signals a fundamental shift in how one of the world’s most influential technology companies thinks about its relationship with humanity. In an era where AI threatens to homogenize creativity, where digital fatigue grows, and where consumers increasingly question technology’s role in their lives, Samsung is proposing something revolutionary: technology that enhances what makes us human, rather than replacing it.
But what does this mean in practical terms? How does a company with Samsung’s global reach—spanning smartphones, home appliances, medical imaging, HVAC solutions, automotive technologies, and the SmartThings ecosystem—operationalize a philosophy as ambitious as “designing for humanity”? And perhaps more importantly, why does this matter now, at this particular moment in technological history?
The answer lies in understanding that we’ve reached an inflection point. The traditional barriers that once protected established tech companies—access to manufacturing, distribution networks, technical expertise—are crumbling. Today, a teenager with a laptop can build an app that reaches millions. AI democratizes coding, 3D printing democratizes manufacturing, and social media democratizes distribution. In this landscape, where technical capability is no longer a moat, what differentiates one technology company from another?
Samsung’s answer is clear: purpose, meaning, and emotional connection. The company is betting that in a world of infinite technological possibilities, the winners will be those who understand not just what technology can do, but what it should do—and more importantly, how it should make people feel.
This philosophy didn’t emerge in a vacuum. It’s rooted in Samsung’s decades-long commitment to research and development, its $22+ billion annual R&D investment, its 200,000+ employees across 74 countries, and its leadership’s recognition that technology’s next frontier isn’t faster processors or higher resolutions—it’s deeper human understanding.
The Cultural Intelligence Advantage
Under leadership that recognizes innovation without empathy is merely novelty, Samsung has been quietly building what could be called the world’s most comprehensive cultural intelligence operation. Teams of designers, anthropologists, sociologists, and technologists fan out across continents—not to sell products, but to listen, observe, and understand how different cultures interact with technology, what they value, what frustrates them, and what brings them joy.
This ethnographic approach has led to insights that transcend conventional market research. In South Korea, designers discovered that multi-generational households needed appliances that bridged technological literacy gaps. In India, they learned that smartphones needed to withstand extreme heat and dust while maintaining battery life through frequent power outages. In Brazil, they understood that vibrant colors and expressive designs weren’t frivolous—they were essential expressions of cultural identity. In the Middle East, they recognized that privacy features needed to be built into the architecture of devices, not added as afterthoughts.
These aren’t mere product modifications. They represent a fundamental reconceptualization of what it means to be a global technology company in the 21st century. Samsung isn’t imposing a single vision of technological progress on the world; it’s co-creating the future with the communities it serves.
Beyond Minimalism: What Comes Next?
For two decades, the tech industry embraced minimalism as both aesthetic and ideology. Inspired by Dieter Rams’ principles and perfected by companies like Apple, minimalist design became synonymous with sophistication. Clean lines, neutral colors, invisible interfaces—these were the hallmarks of “good design.” But as Debbie Millman noted during the forum, this uniformity has become an anomaly. While fashion, automotive, architecture, and furniture design celebrate diversity of expression, technology has remained stubbornly monochromatic.
Samsung’s answer to “what comes after minimalism?” is expressive design—technology that invites emotional connection, supports self-expression, and creates experiences that range from subtle minimalism to bold maximalism, depending on what serves human needs best. This isn’t about abandoning functionality for aesthetics; it’s about recognizing that aesthetics are functional when they create emotional resonance, cultural relevance, and personal meaning.
The business implications of this shift are profound. In an increasingly commoditized technology market, where specifications are easily copied and price competition is fierce, emotional connection becomes the ultimate competitive advantage. A customer who sees their Samsung device as an extension of their identity, as a reflection of their values, or as a trusted companion in their daily life is not just a repeat buyer—they’re an advocate, an evangelist, and a partner in the brand’s ongoing evolution.
AI × (EI + HI): The Formula for Human-Centered Innovation
This is where Samsung’s formula becomes transformative: AI × (EI + HI)—Artificial Intelligence multiplied by Emotional Intelligence and Human Imagination. It’s not just a catchy equation; it’s a design philosophy that acknowledges AI’s transformative potential while ensuring it remains grounded in human values.
As Mauro Porcini articulated, AI should amplify what makes us human, not replace it. When designing products, Samsung uses AI as a tool enhanced by emotional intelligence and human imagination. When customers use those products, AI amplifies their own emotional intelligence and creative capacity.
This approach addresses one of the most pressing anxieties of our time: the fear that artificial intelligence will diminish human agency, creativity, and relevance. Samsung’s counter-narrative is compelling: AI becomes truly powerful only when guided by uniquely human capacities—empathy, imagination, values, and emotional depth. Technology doesn’t need to be feared; it needs to be humanized, guided, and shaped.
Consider what this means across Samsung’s product ecosystem. The SmartThings platform isn’t just connecting devices; it’s learning your rhythms, preferences, and needs to create a home environment that intuitively supports your wellbeing. Samsung Health isn’t just tracking metrics; it’s understanding your holistic wellness journey and providing contextually relevant support. Samsung’s displays aren’t just showing content; they’re adapting to your emotional state, the time of day, and the social context to optimize your experience.
This level of contextual intelligence requires massive investments in AI research, machine learning, sensor technology, and data analytics. But it also requires something less quantifiable: the wisdom to know when technology should recede into the background and when it should actively engage.
Four Pillars: Live Longer, Better, Louder, and On
Samsung’s commitment to living longer, living better, living louder, and living on—the four pillars articulated by Porcini—reflects a nuanced understanding of human needs:
Live Longer: Health technologies that extend both lifespan and healthspan. Samsung Health integrates data from multiple sources to provide holistic health insights. Samsung’s medical imaging technologies democratize access to diagnostic capability. Wearables monitor health metrics continuously, enabling early intervention and preventive care. Crucially, these technologies are designed to support health without creating anxiety or obsession.
Live Better: Quality of life encompasses physical comfort, mental well-being, and environmental quality. Samsung’s home appliances reduce domestic labor burden—not to eliminate all work but to free time for activities people find meaningful. Climate control systems create healthy indoor environments. Display technologies reduce eye strain and adapt to viewing conditions.
Live Louder: This pillar champions self-expression, creativity, and authenticity. Samsung’s creative tools—from advanced smartphone cameras to professional displays to audio equipment through Harman—enable people to capture, create, and share their unique perspectives. The philosophy here is that everyone has something worth expressing.
Live On: This addresses legacy, sustainability, and impact beyond individual lifespan. Samsung’s environmental commitments—from renewable energy in manufacturing to sustainable materials to device longevity—reflect recognition that caring for humanity means caring for the planet and future generations.
Design as an Act of Love
When Samsung frames design as “an act of love,” it elevates the stakes beyond questions of aesthetics or usability. Love implies care, attention, sacrifice, and commitment. Love means understanding another’s needs deeply enough to serve them authentically.
This framing transforms the designer-user relationship. Instead of the designer as expert imposing solutions on passive users, design becomes a dialogue, a co-creation, a mutual exploration of how technology can serve genuine human flourishing.
Karim Rashid’s insight about developing “strong connections to objects” points to something often overlooked in tech discourse: the phenomenology of everyday life. We don’t just use our devices as tools; we incorporate them into our sense of self, our daily rituals, and our emotional landscapes. The smartphone that documents our children’s childhood becomes a repository of memory and meaning. The kitchen appliances that help us express care through cooking become instruments of love.
When design is approached as an act of love, these dimensions of human experience move from peripheral considerations to central concerns. The color, texture, and material of a device matter not just for aesthetic reasons but because they communicate values, invite interaction, and create emotional tone.
Making Care Visible: The Human Side of Tech
The forum’s central theme—”The Human Side of Tech”—addresses a fundamental challenge: how to make human values visible, tangible, and operational in products that are fundamentally digital, abstract, and algorithmic.
Traditional craft objects—furniture, pottery, textiles, tools—bear visible marks of human creation. You can see the carpenter’s hand in the wood grain, the potter’s touch in the clay. But digital technology obscures its human origins. Behind the smooth glass screen lies unimaginable complexity: millions of lines of code, countless design decisions, years of research. This complexity is invisible to users.
Samsung makes care visible through several interconnected strategies:
Intentional Interaction Design: Every interaction—from how a button responds to touch, to how information is revealed, to how the device acknowledges user input—is designed to feel responsive, respectful, and thoughtful.
Contextual Intelligence: Samsung devices understand context—time of day, location, recent activity, emotional state (inferred from usage patterns). This contextual awareness allows devices to offer anticipatory care.
Transparency About Data and Decision-Making: Making AI’s reasoning visible helps users understand why a device is behaving a certain way. This transparency builds trust and transforms AI from a black box into a comprehensible partner.
Customization and Personalization: By allowing users to customize interfaces, choose aesthetic options, and adjust behavior according to their preferences, Samsung’s devices become extensions of individual identity.
Emotional Design: Color, animation, sound, and haptic feedback are carefully orchestrated to create emotional tone. Samsung uses emotional design to communicate care and create experiences that resonate with users’ emotional states and needs.
Designing for Human Values Across Cultures
Perhaps the most forward-thinking aspect of Samsung’s CES 2026 forum was its emphasis on designing for human values across diverse cultural contexts. This represents a significant evolution in how global technology companies think about their markets and responsibilities.
Traditional globalization strategies in tech followed the “universal product” approach: design one excellent product, then sell it everywhere with minimal localization. But this approach has limitations. What works beautifully in Silicon Valley may feel inappropriate in Tokyo, confusing in Mumbai, or alienating in Lagos. Cultural context shapes not just language and aesthetics but fundamental expectations about how technology should behave.
Samsung’s recognition of this reality has led to “cultural intelligence” as a core competency. The company maintains design and research teams embedded in diverse cultural contexts, not primarily to adapt existing products but to understand cultural values deeply enough to design products that resonate authentically.
This involves several layers of cultural understanding:
Surface-Level Localization: Translating interfaces, adjusting color schemes to avoid cultural taboos, and ensuring products work with local infrastructure.
Functional Adaptation: Adjusting features to match local use cases. For example, Samsung smartphones in markets with less reliable electricity include enhanced battery management features.
Value-Based Design: Designing products that express and support values important in specific cultural contexts—whether that’s privacy features that reflect cultural norms around family and social relationships, or aesthetic choices that resonate with local design traditions.
Cultural Co-Creation: At the deepest level, Samsung involves people from diverse cultures as partners in the design process itself. Local teams have genuine authority to shape products, not just adapt them.
The business impact of this approach is substantial. In markets where Samsung demonstrates cultural understanding and respect, the company builds loyalty that transcends price competition. Customers become advocates because they feel seen, understood, and respected.
Moreover, cultural intelligence drives innovation. Some of Samsung’s most successful global features originated in specific cultural contexts and then proved valuable worldwide. Quick charging technology was partly driven by markets with unreliable electricity. Dual SIM capabilities emerged from markets where people manage personal and business communications separately. Innovation driven by genuine needs in specific contexts often proves universally valuable.
Expressive Design Drives More Meaningful Experiences
The forum’s final major theme—that expressive design drives more meaningful experiences—represents perhaps the most aesthetically radical aspect of Samsung’s vision. In an industry that has worshiped at the altar of minimalism for two decades, Samsung is declaring that expression, emotion, and even ornamentation have legitimate roles in technology design.
Fabio Novembre’s declaration that “happiness is the aim of design” challenges utilitarian assumptions that have long dominated tech design philosophy. Samsung’s exploration of expressive design doesn’t reject minimalism outright. Rather, it expands the design vocabulary to include minimalism as one option among many. The goal is design diversity that matches human diversity.
This expansion of design vocabulary has several dimensions:
Visual Diversity: Rather than defaulting to neutral colors and geometric simplicity, Samsung is exploring how color, pattern, and visual richness can create emotional resonance and support self-expression.
Material Exploration: Different materials communicate different values—premium metals suggest permanence and value, soft-touch plastics suggest approachability, glass suggests transparency and modernity, fabrics suggest warmth and comfort.
Interface Personality: Beyond static visual design, Samsung is exploring how interfaces can have distinct personalities—playful or serious, warm or cool, expressive or restrained.
Customization: Giving users tools to customize visual appearance, sounds, and behaviors transforms devices from uniform products into canvases for self-expression.
Dynamic Aesthetics: Rather than fixed designs, Samsung is exploring interfaces that change based on context—time of day, location, activity, and emotional state.
The panel’s discussion emphasized that this expressive approach isn’t about superficial decoration but about creating experiences that resonate emotionally and support meaning-making. When design connects emotionally, when it expresses values we identify with, when it brings joy or comfort or excitement, technology becomes more than a tool—it becomes part of our emotional landscape.
In an era of rapid obsolescence and disposable technology, creating objects worth keeping, worth caring for, and worth repairing represents resistance to throwaway culture. Expressive design that creates emotional bonds encourages longer product lifecycles, reducing environmental impact while deepening customer relationships.
The Business Case for Human-Centered Design
Samsung’s human-centered approach isn’t just ethical—it’s strategically sound. In increasingly competitive and commoditized technology markets, emotional connection and trust become ultimate differentiators. Customers who feel cared for become advocates, generating word-of-mouth marketing and remaining loyal through product cycles.
Expressive, culturally-resonant products command premium pricing because they deliver value beyond function—emotional value, identity value, aesthetic value. They create opportunities for special editions, collaborations with artists and designers, and limited releases that generate excitement and urgency.
Samsung’s scale enables investments in cultural intelligence that smaller companies cannot match. With billions of users across hundreds of countries, the company generates insights into human behavior and needs at an unprecedented scale and diversity. When properly analyzed and applied, this global intelligence becomes a competitive moat that’s difficult for competitors to replicate.
Addressing Technology’s Impact on Wellbeing
Samsung’s commitment to human-centered design also means acknowledging and addressing technology’s potential harms. The company includes digital wellbeing features—screen time monitoring, focus modes, bedtime routines—reflecting recognition that even beneficial technologies can become problematic when overused or misused.
Similarly, Samsung’s privacy features—from secure folders to on-device AI processing to granular permission controls—reflect respect for human dignity and autonomy. In an era where many tech companies treat privacy as an obstacle to revenue generation, Samsung’s approach treats privacy as a fundamental human right to be protected through design, not just policy.
The company’s work in accessibility demonstrates a commitment to serving all of humanity. Samsung designs for users across different abilities, implementing features that enable diagnosis without extensive training in medical devices, interfaces that adapt to different literacy levels, and products that function reliably in challenging conditions.
Environmental Stewardship as Human Care
Samsung’s environmental commitments—from renewable energy in manufacturing to sustainable materials to device longevity—reflect recognition that serving humanity means protecting planetary boundaries. The company’s approach to device longevity through software updates, repairability, and modular design reflects an understanding that sustainability is a human value worth designing for.
This comprehensive vision—encompassing emotional connection, cultural respect, environmental stewardship, and long-term commitment—represents Samsung’s attempt to make care visible and tangible in every dimension of its business.
Looking Forward: Technology’s Covenant with Humanity
As we reflect on Samsung’s CES 2026 vision, we’re witnessing more than a company’s product strategy—we’re seeing the articulation of a new covenant between technology and humanity.
For decades, the implicit contract was simple: technology companies would push the boundaries of what’s possible, and consumers would adapt. But this contract is breaking down. We’re seeing growing skepticism about technology’s impact, increasing concerns about privacy and wellbeing, and rising demand for sustainability.
Samsung’s response is to propose a new covenant centered on mutual commitment: the company commits to genuinely serving human needs, respecting human values, and supporting human flourishing, while asking users to trust that technology, properly guided, can enhance rather than diminish human experience.
This covenant is expressed through core commitments:
Design as Service: Technology exists to serve human needs, not to demonstrate technical capability or maximize engagement metrics.
Cultural Respect: Rather than imposing uniform products globally, Samsung commits to understanding and serving diverse cultural contexts, values, and preferences.
Transparent Partnership: Rather than treating AI as a mysterious black box, Samsung commits to making AI’s reasoning visible and ensuring AI amplifies human agency.
Long-term Relationship: Rather than transactional sales, Samsung commits to an ongoing partnership with customers through continuing software updates and support.
Environmental Stewardship: Recognizing that serving humanity means protecting planetary boundaries.
Inclusive Access: Technology should serve all of humanity, regardless of age, ability, economic status, or location.
These commitments represent Samsung’s bid for trusted leadership in an era of technological skepticism. The company is betting that organizations that genuinely serve human flourishing will earn the trust, loyalty, and advocacy necessary for sustainable success.
The Path Forward
Looking forward, Samsung’s success with this approach will depend on execution. Can the company maintain human-centered priorities as it scales? Can it resist pressures to compromise values for short-term profits? Can it build organizational cultures that support this philosophy across dozens of countries and product lines?
These are open questions. However, by publicly articulating this vision, investing in the capabilities necessary to execute it, and creating accountability structures that keep human values central, Samsung has committed itself to a path that could redefine technology’s role in human life.
For customers, this vision offers hope that technology can enhance life without dominating it, that devices can feel personal without being invasive, that innovation can serve wellbeing rather than just economic growth.
For the industry, it offers an alternative model to the disruption-at-all-costs mentality. It demonstrates that serving human flourishing and building successful businesses are not contradictory but complementary goals.
For society, it offers a vision of technology’s potential to address genuine needs, bridge cultural differences, support creativity and expression, and enhance human capability while preserving human agency, dignity, and connection.
Samsung reimagines technology
At CES 2026, Samsung didn’t just showcase products. It articulated a philosophy, made commitments, and invited the world to hold it accountable. The company acknowledged that technology’s relationship with humanity needs reimagining and offered its vision for what comes next.
The human side of tech isn’t about making technology seem more human. It’s about making technology more humane—guided by human values, shaped by human imagination, serving human needs, respecting human dignity, and ultimately devoted to human flourishing in all its diverse, expressive, beautiful complexity.
This is Samsung’s promise at CES 2026: technology designed as an act of love, for a future not just worth living, but worth loving.
Welcome to tomorrow. Welcome to technology reimagined for humanity.
FAQ: Understanding Samsung’s Human-Centered Design Philosophy
Q: What makes Samsung’s design approach at CES 2026 different?
Samsung challenged two decades of minimalist design orthodoxy by proposing that technology should be expressive, culturally diverse, and emotionally resonant—designed as an act of love rather than merely functional efficiency.
Q: What does “AI × (EI + HI)” mean?
This formula represents Artificial Intelligence multiplied by Emotional Intelligence and Human Imagination. It positions AI as a tool that amplifies human capabilities rather than replacing them, ensuring AI serves human potential rather than substituting for human agency.
Q: How does “design as an act of love” impact actual products?
This philosophy translates into products through responsive interaction design, contextual intelligence that anticipates needs, transparency about AI decision-making, extensive customization options, emotional design elements, and long-term support demonstrating ongoing commitment.
Q: What are Samsung’s four pillars for technology designed for humanity?
The four pillars are:
(1) Live Longer – health technologies extending lifespan and healthspan
(2) Live Better – improvements in wellbeing and quality of life
(3) Live Louder – supporting self-expression and creativity
(4) Live On – considering legacy and sustainability.
Q: How does Samsung approach cultural diversity in design?
Samsung maintains design teams embedded globally, studying not just preferences but underlying values. The company practices surface-level localization, functional adaptation, value-based design, and cultural co-creation—involving diverse voices in the design process itself.
Q: What does “expressive design” mean?
Expressive design expands beyond minimalism to include diverse visual languages, material explorations, interface personalities, extensive customization, and dynamic aesthetics. The goal is to provide design diversity that matches human diversity.
Q: How does Samsung balance personalization with privacy?
Samsung processes much AI computation on-device, implements secure folders and granular permission controls, and designs systems that adapt to diverse privacy preferences across different cultural contexts and regulatory environments.
Q: What role do professional designers play in Samsung’s vision?
Designers like Karim Rashid and Fabio Novembre represent a lineage placing human experience at the center of creative practice. Their participation signals Samsung’s commitment to learning from humanistic disciplines, not just technical fields.
Q: How does Samsung address technology’s negative impacts?
Samsung includes digital wellbeing features, designs for accessibility across abilities, implements strong privacy protections, pursues environmental sustainability, and evaluates innovations by their impact on human lives rather than just technological capabilities.
Q: What is the business case for human-centered design?
In commoditized markets, emotional connection becomes the ultimate differentiator. Customers who feel cared for become advocates. Expressive, culturally resonant products command premium pricing. Cultural intelligence enables success in diverse global markets.
Q: How can other companies apply Samsung’s philosophy?
Start by genuinely listening to diverse user communities. Invest in ethnographic research and cultural intelligence. Empower designers at strategic levels. Evaluate innovations by human impact. Build long-term customer relationships. Respect privacy and sustainability as design imperatives.
Q: What is Samsung’s SmartThings ecosystem?
SmartThings is Samsung’s connected home platform, integrating devices across product lines and third-party products. It reflects human-centered design through open collaboration, AI that learns user rhythms, interfaces adapting to technical literacy levels, andan emphasis on enhancing daily life.
Q: How does cultural intelligence drive innovation?
Some of Samsung’s most successful global features originated in specific cultural contexts. Quick charging came from markets with unreliable electricity. Dual SIM from markets manages separate communications. Innovation driven by genuine needs often proves universally valuable.
Q: Why does “making care visible” matter in digital products?
Traditional craft objects bear visible marks of human creation, but digital technology obscures their human origins. Samsung makes care visible through intentional interactions, contextual intelligence, transparency about AI, customization respecting preferences, and emotional design.
Q: How does Samsung’s approach differ from Silicon Valley companies?
While many prioritize disruption and rapid growth, Samsung emphasizes innovation serving human flourishing, moving thoughtfully rather than “breaking things,” and continuously earning trust through demonstrated care for human welfare and diverse cultural perspectives.
