Apple Watch and Samsung Galaxy Watch are incredible pieces of engineering. Health sensors, fitness tracking, notifications, mobile payments — they do a lot. But when it comes to AI, they are surprisingly basic. Here is what the biggest smartwatch makers still have not figured out, and what a different approach looks like.
The Current State of AI on Smartwatches
Both Apple and Samsung have added AI features to their watches in recent years. Siri and Bixby can set timers, send messages, and answer simple questions. Samsung has added some Galaxy AI features. Apple has brought Siri improvements with Apple Intelligence. But the experience still feels like talking to a command parser, not a companion.
Ask Siri on your Apple Watch a follow-up question and it has already forgotten what you talked about 30 seconds ago. Ask it to remember something personal and it cannot. Ask it to check on you later with a thoughtful reminder and it does not understand the concept.
What Is Missing
1. Persistent Memory
The most striking gap is memory. Current watch assistants treat every interaction as brand new. They do not remember that you mentioned your daughter's recital next week, that you are trying to drink more water, or that you prefer morning reminders over evening ones. Every conversation starts from zero.
A true AI companion should accumulate knowledge about you over time and use it to be more helpful. When you say "remind me about the thing I mentioned yesterday," it should know what you mean.
2. Real Conversations
Current watch assistants are designed for one-shot commands: "set a timer for 5 minutes," "what is the weather." They struggle with multi-turn conversations, context, nuance, and natural speech patterns. If you pause mid-sentence or change direction, they get confused.
Modern LLMs like GPT-4o can handle natural, flowing conversation — but no mainstream watch maker has connected their watch to these models in a way that enables real dialogue.
3. Companion Personality
Siri and Bixby are deliberately neutral. They have no personality, no warmth, no character. This is a design choice by Apple and Samsung — they want their assistants to feel professional and universal. But on a personal device strapped to your wrist, a bit of personality goes a long way.
Imagine an AI that knows your humor, matches your communication style, and feels like talking to someone who actually knows you. That is what a companion personality means.
4. Proactive AI Actions
Current watches are reactive — they wait for you to ask. But what if your watch could generate a motivational message at 7am based on your calendar, or compose a birthday wish for a contact whose birthday it knows about, or brief you on news topics it knows you care about?
AI-task reminders — reminders that do not just beep but actually generate content when they trigger — are a fundamentally different concept that mainstream watches have not explored.
5. Visual Expression
Your watch face is a static grid of complications. What if it had a face — an animated character that reacts, speaks with lip-synced animation, and expresses emotions? The technology exists. AMOLED displays are more than capable. But no mainstream watch uses the display for anything beyond data.
A Different Approach
The ProjectOSAI Companion Watch was built specifically to fill these gaps. It runs on an ESP32-S3 with a 2.06 inch AMOLED display and connects to GPT-4o for real conversational AI. It has persistent NVS-based memory that accumulates across conversations, customizable companion personality, AI-task reminders that generate spoken content when triggered, and animated lip-sync face expressions.
It does not track your heart rate or count your steps — that is not the point. It is designed to be a conversational AI companion, which is something no Apple Watch or Samsung Galaxy Watch currently offers.
Will the Big Players Catch Up?
Almost certainly, eventually. Apple and Samsung are both investing heavily in on-device AI, and it is only a matter of time before Siri and Bixby get meaningful AI upgrades on the watch. But today, in 2026, if you want a real AI companion on your wrist, the mainstream options do not deliver it.
If this interests you, check out the ProjectOSAI Companion Watch — it is available now for $99.