Samsungs AI assistant Bixby adds sports results and news

Bixby, the smart assistant created by Samsung to compete with other offerings like Alexa, Siri and Google Assistant, has struggled to find a place in the market, having suffered with a delayed introduction and sporadic rollout. Samsung is hoping to reverse that trend with a new partnership with sports app theScore, bringing live sports scores and news to the assistant.

Starting next month, Bixby Home will enable users in the US to access up-to-the-minute information on top sports leagues including the NBA, MLB, NFL, NHL and EPL, with customisable notifications based on specific sports or teams.

“We are happy to provide theScore updates through Bixby,” said John Levy, CEO and founder of theScore. “This enables us to showcase the features that have made theScore one of the most popular sports apps in North America to a huge audience, delivering sports fans on Bixby Home a highly-customisable experience and access to their scores and news headlines at a glance.”

The new feature represents the latest third-party partnership for Bixby, one of the primary selling points of the assistant when it was first launched. Samsung hoped that external developers would create skills and functionality for Bixby, but so far few firms have leapt at the chance, despite Samsungs attempts to centre new devices around Bixby.

With the Samsung Note 9 set to arrive in stores soon, we can likely expect the smart assistant to receive another push from Samsung, and this partnership could be the first of many aimed at finally making Bixby a true competitor in the AI space.