Warum müssen Haushaltsgeräte sich mithilfe von KI aus der "Involution" befreien?

Recently, home appliance companies have been actively involved in AI-related activities.

Two listed companies under the "Hisense Group", Hisense Home Appliances and Hisense Visual Technology, jointly established an artificial intelligence company in Hangzhou - Hisense Xinghai Technology (Hangzhou) Co., Ltd.

TCL and Alibaba Cloud announced a full-stack AI strategic cooperation and launched the industry's first powerful inference large model focusing on the semiconductor display field.

Zhou Yunjie, the Chairman and CEO of Haier Group, said during an event that Haier is embracing AI across the board, involving all employees and the entire process.

Home appliance companies are embracing AI, and AI technology is also transforming the home appliance industry.

Evolution and Iteration

The home appliance industry is a typical technology-driven industry and is also proficient in R & D and good at applying new technologies.

Based on this characteristic, home appliances have become an important scenario for the implementation of modern technology and continuously drive the transformation of product forms, user experiences, and industrial structures.

In the article "Who Killed Plasma TVs", Zhengjieju introduced the history of home appliance companies iterating panel display technologies. (Click on the title to read.)

This year, the sudden rise and continuous popularity of DeepSeek have greatly promoted the process of AI integration in home appliances.

Actually, the application of AI in the home appliance industry started a long time ago and has been continuously evolving and iterating.

It can be roughly divided into three categories:

Firstly, performance improvement.

The picture quality is crucial for the quality of a TV.

Products such as Hisense TV E8Q Pro and RGB - Mini LED, based on Hisense's AI picture - quality chip and Xinghai large model, have achieved exponential improvement in picture quality with ultra - high color performance, ultra - wide viewing angles, and ultra - high brightness, making red more vivid, green more accurate, blue more transparent, and details more abundant.

Hisense E8Q Pro

Secondly, environmental perception.

Air conditioners are essential in summer.

However, the problem of direct cold air blowing from air conditioners has become a headache for many families, and "air - conditioner disease" makes people reluctant to use air conditioners.

The cabinet air conditioners in Midea's wind - free series adopt the original AI wind - free technology and are equipped with a millimeter - wave radar 2.0 system, which can intelligently and accurately detect the movement trajectories of people within a 120° range 3 meters in front of the air conditioner.

Midea's wind - free series cabinet air conditioners

When a person appears in this area, the air conditioner will automatically turn on the wind - free mode, making the cold air avoid blowing directly on people.

AI technology enables home appliances to have the ability to "observe and understand" and automatically perceive the surrounding spatial environment, providing more intelligent and considerate services.

Thirdly, human - machine interaction.

The most basic requirement is to understand human speech.

The integration of large models enables home appliances to understand complex voice commands, making voice interaction more user - friendly.

In 2024, Hisense independently developed the Xinghai large model, covering three major series: large language models, large visual - generation models, and large multi - modal understanding models.

Based on the Xinghai base large model, Hisense actively develops large models in vertical fields to empower industrial clusters and business segments such as Hisense's smart life, smart energy, network information, and medical health.

At the beginning of this year, Hisense's Xinghai base large model was integrated with DeepSeek, promoting the implementation of more innovative applications and enhancing the user experience.

Hisense's Xinghai base large model integrated with DeepSeek

After the official integration with DeepSeek, Hisense TV users don't need complex operation steps. They can use the Xiaoju AI button on the Hisense TV remote control or directly turn on DeepSeek by voice. On the corresponding intelligent agent dialogue page, users can conveniently experience it through voice dialogue.

The deep integration of AI vision technology with perception decision - making, large models, and scenarios is the core "booster" for the intelligentization of home appliances, enabling home appliances to actively interact with people and bringing personalized experiences to users.

Value Reconstruction

With the rapid iteration of technology, people's consumption demands have also changed profoundly.

Buying home appliances is not only about obtaining tools and meeting functional needs but also about realizing a lifestyle and investing in a value concept.

The younger generation, as digital natives, pursue novelty and are more willing to pay for AI - enabled home appliances.

According to iResearch, the consumption of home appliances across the network shows an obvious trend of youthfulness. Consumers under 35 years old account for nearly 60%, and consumers under 40 years old account for over 90% in the consumption of smart small home appliances.

Age structure of consumers of home appliances across the network. Image source: iResearch

The younger generation has become the main consumers of home appliances and the main driving force for the intelligentization and high - end development of the home appliance industry.

Why are AI - enabled home appliances more attractive to young people?

Firstly, they simplify household chores and improve living efficiency.

Products such as sweeping robots, smart washing machines, and smart kitchen appliances have enabled young people to shift from "manual work" to "automated work".

Sweeping robot

It's not just the intelligence of a single product but the all - around integration of technology into the home, turning smart homes into "external devices" of personal life.

Through mobile phone apps or even automatic responses, users can remotely control the washing machine and dryer, turn on the air conditioner in advance, automatically turn on the living - room lights when they get home from work, and use the microwave - steam - oven combo to solve dinner, etc.

At home, people can completely free their hands, achieve true "unmanned household chores", and leave more time for themselves.

Secondly, they provide personalized experiences and emotional value.

On Bilibili, the "#Home Appliance Makeover Challenge#" has attracted 420 million views and 328,000 discussions. On average, one out of every three people plans to or has already modified home appliances by themselves.

Young people hope to gain a sense of "control" over their lives through self - modification, including integrating home appliances with their hobbies and aesthetics, making the whole home more in line with their living habits.

This forces home appliance manufacturers to pay more attention to product aesthetics and user experience, with different design styles in aspects such as contours, colors, and electronic displays.

The high noise of blenders has always been a problem for many families.

Midea, by deeply exploring user needs, created the first blender with first - level sound effects - Midea's Quiet and Comfortable Sleep Mini - Cube Blender, providing users with a more comfortable and quiet blender - using experience and emotional value.

In addition, home appliances need to be both intelligent and energy - efficient.

Midea's Cool and Power - Saving series of air conditioners, through AI algorithms and OTA self - learning functions, significantly improve power - saving effects while ensuring comfort.

The report shows that as practitioners of low - carbon environmental protection, 99.25% of Generation Z users will focus on the energy consumption and carbon - emission indicators of products when purchasing home appliances, and nearly 70% of them will give priority to low - energy - consumption home appliances.

With the increasing aging of the population, the "aging - friendliness" of home appliances has also become a focus for consumers.

In 2024, the market scale of aging - friendly smart home products in China is expected to exceed 500 billion yuan, reaching 784.8 billion yuan, and it will exceed 800 billion yuan in 2025.

Home appliances equipped with functions such as health detection and intelligent care are more popular among older consumers.

Water heater CA6 equipped with a calling - for - help function

Midea's Meiyixiang launched the double - protection calling - for - help electric water heater CA6, equipped with functions such as AI voice calling for help and one - key physical calling for help, providing calling - for - help services when the elderly fall in the bathroom.

AI technology is reconstructing the value of the home appliance industry.

Searching for New Growth Points

With the maturity of 5G and AIoT technologies and the deepening of the consumption - upgrading trend, the intelligent home appliance and home furnishing industry in China is experiencing explosive growth.

Data from the China Merchant Industry Research Institute shows that from 2018 to 2024, the market scale of China's intelligent home appliances increased from 349.2 billion yuan to 756 billion yuan, with an average annual compound growth rate of 14.79%. It is predicted to reach 793.8 billion yuan in 2025.

Market scale of China's intelligent home appliances from 2018 - 2025. Data source: China Merchant Industry Research Institute

In addition to technological breakthroughs and demand upgrades, policies are also "boosting" the consumption of intelligent home appliances.

The "14th Five - Year Plan" has included smart homes in key industries of the digital economy, and local governments are promoting the popularization of the industry through subsidies.

Driven by policies including "national subsidies" and "aging - friendly transformation", the total retail sales of home appliances in China reached a record high last year.

It is undeniable that the home appliance industry has entered the stage of a stock market and is facing challenges such as serious homogenization of intelligent products and diverse consumer demands.

AI technology has become a breakthrough to break the involution.

Specifically:

Firstly, at the product level, applying AI technology to enhance the user experience.

Some time ago, Midea held the home appliance industry's first open - day event themed "AI Technology" - "Midea AI Technology Day 2025".

At the event, Midea's air - conditioner division launched several heavy - weight products on - site, all equipped with industry - leading AI technology.

As analyzed above, the application of AI technology has improved the user experience and become a differentiated selling point to attract users.

Secondly, at the production level, applying AI technology to achieve cost reduction and efficiency improvement.

Through intelligent decision - making, automated execution, and data - driven optimization, AI technology helps enterprises shorten the production cycle, reduce energy consumption, and improve the yield rate from multiple dimensions such as design, production, quality inspection, and supply - chain management, ultimately achieving cost reduction and efficiency improvement.

On October 8, 2024, Hisense Hitachi's Huangdao Factory was successfully included in the "Lighthouse Factory" list of the World Economic Forum, becoming the world's first "Lighthouse Factory" for multi - connected air conditioners.

Hisense Hitachi's Huangdao Factory

This "lights - out factory" applies automated technologies such as aerial logistics, automatic welding, visual recognition, and VR training, increasing production speed by 37%, improving efficiency by 49%, and reducing costs by 35%.

Thirdly, at the business level, AI technology has become a new growth point.

With the wide application of AI technology at the product and production levels, some home appliance companies have developed the ability to deeply explore AI technology and thus opened up new tracks.

Home appliance giants have focused on AI - related businesses, especially in the field of AI robots.

As early as 2015, Midea jointly established two robot companies with Yaskawa Electric, one of the "Big Four" in the industrial robot industry.

In 2017, Midea completed the acquisition of KUKA, one of the "Big Four" in the global industrial robot industry, achieving full coverage from core components to complete machines, from hardware devices to systems, and ranking among the top 4 in the global industrial robot industry.

In March this year, Midea's humanoid robot was officially unveiled. It can perform actions such as dancing, making a heart - shaped gesture, shaking hands, handing over water, opening bottle caps, and screwing in screws, and can also understand human instructions to complete relevant operations.