Samsung expanded its Bixby artificial intelligence (AI) platform to include the ability to make payments through Samsung Pay.

The voice controlled virtual assistant is currently only available in South Korea on Samsung’s flagship Galaxy S8 and S8+ devices, and the tie-in with Samsung Pay is the latest in a series of upgrades introduced for the platform since its launch in March.

Users are able to perform basic banking functions including person-to-person money transfer and account balance queries. The service can be accessed by consumers with cards from participating banks which are registered with Samsung Pay.

Bixby is also programmed to be able to answer a number of financial queries such as checking exchange rates.

As rumoured shortly after launch, users are able to set up facial recognition on the flagship Galaxy devices as an additional security feature for voice payments.

Although currently only available in the company’s home market, Samsung plans to expand the availability of Bixby into its other major markets, many of which already have Samsung Pay.

Deployment of Bixby beyond Korea is reportedly being delayed by problems in training the voice assistant in the intricacies of the English language, meaning Galaxy S8 buyers in markets including the US face delays in being able to fully access the system.