From AI cloud platform to AI Agent platform, Tuya Smart seizes the opportunity in the AI hardware market | Frontline News

Text | Wang Fangyu

Editor | Su Jianxun

The $9.9 AI translation earphones have become a huge hit overseas. Meta's AI glasses have sold over 2 million units, and AIPCs capable of local deployment of DeepSeek are being snapped up by consumers... The upsurge of large AI models has given rise to a large number of phenomenal AI hardware hits, making the combination of AI and hardware a new technological trend.

Seizing this trend, Tuya Smart, which started with an AI cloud platform, is integrating cutting - edge AI technologies such as large models and intelligent algorithms with end - side AI capabilities to help B - end customers quickly respond to market changes and bring more AI hardware into people's lives.

On April 23rd, Tuya Smart held a global developers' conference in Shenzhen and officially launched four products: the open - source development framework TuyaOpen, the edge computing platform HEDV, Tuya.AI, and the newly upgraded AI Agent development platform to help global customers seize new opportunities in the era of AI Agents.

"From smart devices to the AI Agent platform, it is a natural evolution direction and path for Tuya," Wang Xueji, the founder and CEO of Tuya Smart, told 36Kr. Tuya has been making smart hardware with networking capabilities since its establishment, and now it has added large AI model capabilities to the cloud, which gives it an advantage.

It is reported that when Tuya went public in 2021, it was already providing AI application services to customers, helping them integrate into mainstream smart home ecosystems such as Apple and Google. However, the AI at that time was not a large AI model but natural language processing (NLP) technology.

In Wang Xueji's view, the transformation from traditional AI to large AI models will greatly lower the threshold for users to use smart hardware, thus promoting the rapid popularization of AI hardware.

"In the past, smart hardware was mainly controlled manually or through scene - linkage control, and the operation was relatively complicated. After using large AI models, users can control the hardware through conversations, and the operation has become extremely simple. Even the elderly and children can use it well, which expands the user base. The value brought by this is huge," Wang Xueji said.

Based on this strategy, in the fourth quarter of last year, Tuya Smart launched the AI Agent development platform and has successively connected to global mainstream large language models, including ChatGPT, Tongyi Qianwen, Doubao, DeepSeek, Mistral, Gemini, and Amazon Nova.

Some developers have taken the lead and created popular AI products based on the above - mentioned platform, including smart rings, smart earphones, and AI dolls, which were jointly exhibited at the CES in January this year.

In March this year, Tuya Smart also signed a comprehensive cooperation agreement with Kidswant to jointly promote the development of AI companion smart hardware, intelligent agents, and cooperation in going global. In this cooperation, Tuya Smart will provide underlying technical support such as the underlying development system for software - hardware integrated products and chip modules.

Why do smart hardware need large AI models?

Wang Xueji believes that the empowerment of smart hardware by large AI models is most prominent in three aspects. Firstly, multi - modal interaction enables devices to have human - like perception. Secondly, expert - level efficiency optimization allows intelligent agents to meet many professional needs and replace professional services. Thirdly, the "intelligent brain" of distributed decision - making enables AI hardware to have the ability of self - evolution and optimization.

These capabilities have enabled hardware devices to achieve a "dimensional upgrade" in functions, and the ability of large AI models has increasingly become a "must - have" for hardware. For example, an AI bird - watching device can automatically identify and record bird species, and an AI energy management system can independently formulate strategies for automatic charging and discharging of photovoltaic energy storage, helping to save electricity costs. These are new features that the previous generation of AI could not achieve.

However, overall, the smart hardware industry is still in the early stage of exploring AI Agent applications, and "the overall penetration rate is still less than 5%."

"The popularity of DeepSeek has made many customers realize the arrival of the AI era and feel a sense of urgency. In the past, our customers were mainly old - timers in the familiar smart hardware field. Now, more and more new customers who have never been exposed to smart hardware before, even from cross - industries, are joining. Undoubtedly, AI has fully 'gone mainstream'," Yang Yi, the co - founder, CFO, and COO of Tuya Smart, told 36Kr.

The financial report shows that as of December 31, 2024, Tuya had 298 "Premium customers" (customers who contributed more than $100,000 in revenue to the company in the past 12 months as of a specific date), which contributed approximately 87.3% and 86.9% of the company's IoT PaaS revenue in the fourth quarter and the whole year of 2024 respectively.

Yang Yi said that the company's main work in the next one to two quarters will focus on market popularization and education and training, while also responding to the specific needs of customers who are quick to react.

In Yang Yi's view, hardware manufacturers still face three main problems in embracing and making good use of AI. Firstly, the development threshold for truly commercializable products is still relatively high. There are still many technical links to be established from large models to AI hardware, which is a blind spot for many manufacturers. Secondly, it is necessary to dig into user scenarios, design scenario - based products that match the sweet spots of user needs by fully combining industry knowledge and the current capabilities of AI agents. Thirdly, it is necessary to have a competitive cost to bring products at prices that the general public can afford. Tuya Smart's AI Agent development platform can help hardware manufacturers lower the development threshold and user costs, allowing them to focus more on product design and business innovation.

He predicts that 2025 will be a year when a large number of new AI hardware products emerge, and there will be a wide variety of new AI hardware categories. After these new categories are verified or falsified by the market, large - scale new AI hardware will emerge. "This time cycle will be about two to three years, and it will be the harvest period for Tuya Smart's AI Agent strategy."