Smart refrigerators, smart range hoods, smart sofas… Recently, the entire smart home industry has actively embraced AI. It not only has many large vertical models and rich application scenarios, freeing the public from housework, but also wins the favor of consumers with its rich functions, becoming an important benchmark for leading consumption upgrades.
Smart life is within reach.
When you drive back home, the on-board intelligent system will issue instructions in advance to turn on the air conditioner and air purifier; if you want to taste delicious meals, AI glasses can teach you how to cook “step by step”; with the help of sweeping robots and window cleaning robots, home cleaning becomes labor-saving and worry-free… This is not a scene in a science fiction movie, but it actually happens in life.
The popularity of smart homes not only improves people’s quality of life, but also injects new momentum into smart manufacturing.
What kind of sparks can be created by combining kitchen and AI?
Not long ago, Robam Electric released the “God of Cookery Large Model”, a vertical large model that has been applied in the field of cooking to promote AI agents from the digital world to the physical world.
With the blessing of large models, AI cooking glasses become a kitchen “guide”. They can identify the ingredients in your hands, sense the firepower of the stove, and remind you “it’s time to add salt” and “turn over and fry for another 30 seconds.”
He Yadong, director and vice president of Robam Electric, believes that among many scenarios of “AI + consumption”, cooking is a high-frequency and rigid need, with huge potential in human-computer interaction and vertical large-scale model applications.
AI is like a brain, teaching home appliances to think proactively.
Not long ago, Roborock Technology released a sweeping machine equipped with a five-axis folding bionic manipulator and a two-wheel leg structure. With the support of algorithms and AI obstacle avoidance technology, it can remove ground obstacles, actively sort out debris, and expand the cleaning dimension from a flat to a three-dimensional space, making it more worry-free.
The popularity of AI has also brought the concept of the Internet of Everything in the intelligent era to a new level.
A single smart home no longer exists in isolation. They are interconnected and create a new picture of smart life.
Haier launched the “Smart Home Brain”, which integrates technologies such as AI, IoT, and large models to transform home appliance services from passive to proactive.
For example, the air conditioner becomes able to sense and “think” and can turn on fresh air according to the indoor air quality; the washing machine can identify the fabric of clothing and automatically match the laundry program.
The intelligence of the home is expanding to automobiles, making new energy vehicles more popular.
Research data from the “White Paper on Car Trade-in Consumption Insights” released by the car information platform Dianchedi shows that 81.2% of consumers of fuel vehicles prefer new energy vehicles when replacing their cars. Chinese brands are favored by replacement users due to their excellent product capabilities.
In particular, continued investment and great progress in autonomous driving and smart cockpits have enabled Chinese brands to meet users’ expectations for low cost of use and high driving experience.
Innovation supports “going global” development.
As a fruit of smart manufacturing, the combination of super manufacturing capabilities and AI has allowed domestic smart home manufacturers to shine in overseas markets.
In an electrical appliance mall in Berlin, Germany, many local consumers said they would give priority to Chinese products when purchasing household smart devices such as sweeping robots.
The “Global Household Intelligent Cleaning Robot Market Tracking Report” released by the international data company IDC shows that in 2025, the global household cleaning robot market shipments will reach 32.72 million units, a year-on-year increase of 20.1%. Among them, sweeping robots have grown steadily, with 24.124 million units shipped, an increase of 17.1%.
The top five cleaning robot manufacturers in the world in terms of sales are all from China, namely Roborock, Ecovacs, Zhuimi, Xiaomi and Cloud Whale.
The reason why Chinese companies can rank among the top sales is inseparable from their continuous strengthening of local innovation in response to local conditions.
In the European and North American markets, some head-mounted intelligent cleaning robot companies are actively deploying emerging market segments such as lawn mower robots and swimming pool robots, which have strong overseas demand, and their market share has increased rapidly.
At the same time, product design also pays more attention to differentiation. For example, in the North American market, it focuses on pet families and carpet cleaning pain points, in the European market, it focuses on energy-saving, silent and environmentally friendly design, and in the East Asian market, it focuses on fashion aesthetics and smart experience to achieve precise “local expression.”
Take the lawn mowing robot of Chui Mi as an example. In order to adapt to the needs of the European and American markets, Chui Mi takes the research and development direction of embodied intelligent lawn mowing robots, promoting its upgrade from a single lawn mowing tool to an expandable, multi-tasking intelligent garden steward, with functions such as cleaning fallen leaves, resetting tools, sweeping the floor and watering, and picking fruits.
Leng Ling, CEO of Tianke Company, said that the company team will look for clues from reviews of overseas stores to understand user needs and suggestions.
As the number of users and team experience continues to accumulate, its advantages in the North American and European markets are further highlighted.
Industry analysis shows that the overseas market competitiveness of China’s smart homes comes not only from cost performance, but also from superior performance backed by rapid iterative innovation to a greater extent.
Moreover, the technological innovation of more and more products has expanded from functional innovation to embodied intelligence, which is more consistent with foreign market demand.
The smart home market is entering the spotlight.
Analysts from the China Business Industry Research Institute predict that China’s smart home appliance market will reach 833.5 billion yuan in 2026, showing steady growth.
However, the popularity of smart homes has also caused some concerns.
Shi Lingzhi, director of the AI Innovation Center of Beijing Venute Technology Co., Ltd., believes that some smart home products have data leakage and privacy security risks, and there are obvious hidden dangers in hardware quality and software stability.
For consumers, they need to increase their awareness of safe use and give priority to products from big brands and formal channels.
In fact, “fancy” functions are not enough to support the expansion of smart homes. Only technological innovation based on demand can achieve steady and long-term development.
Stone Technology’s financial report shows that in the first three quarters of 2025, the company’s R&D investment reached 1.028 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 60.56%, accounting for 8.52% of revenue.
This kind of “seeding” investment has accumulated core momentum for product iteration and technology improvement, especially building a long-term moat of “sustained AI capabilities” that determines future competitive advantages.
Under the protection of technology, as of 2025, the cumulative number of registered users of Haier Smart Home worldwide has exceeded 130 million, and the number of smart scene interactions throughout the year has reached 86.1 billion times, initially building a global smart home life platform.
As for the industry concern about “will the integration of AI and smart homes replace people?” some surveys believe that smart homes are positioned as “life assistance tools” and their core value is to free up time and energy so that people can focus on creative activities or high-quality companionship.
As He Yadong said, the mission of AI is to fulfill every creation you create, not to replace you.
