The emergence of "cross-border players": Dreame, MOVA, and TCL are reshaping the home appliance landscape with AI | Hard Kr Hit IFA 2025

Editor's Note: At the IFA (Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin) in 2025, Chinese manufacturers once again took over the venue. With the world's most complete and complex supply chain and the largest number of the most experienced hardware engineers in reserve, these companies have long been prepared to offer the world the most unique products. From audio - visual equipment to energy storage, from laptops to smart home appliances, Chinese manufacturers have demonstrated their impressive technological capabilities. As a tech media outlet that has long focused on the hardware industry, we will track this largest European tech exhibition throughout the next five days, explore new products and emerging sectors, and seek future trends.

Author: Ou Xue

Editor: Yuan Silai

Inside the exhibition hall of the 2025 International Consumer Electronics Show (IFA) in Berlin, Germany, there seemed to be a silent competition in the air.

There was no gunpowder smoke or slogans, but behind each booth and every new product, there were hidden the ambitions and anxieties of the collective transformation of the Chinese home appliance industry.

The labels of "AI" and "smart" were everywhere. From the floor - sweeping robot that could climb stairs up to 25 centimeters autonomously, to the floor washer that could sense the user's intention to push or pull, and to the smart refrigerator with a 21 - inch large screen that could integrate the whole home - they were no longer cold machines but digital entities trying to understand you, predict you, and even "serve" you.

However, as one walked among the glamorous booths, an unavoidable question emerged: When almost all brands talked about "AI", was it really a technological revolution or just a new story that companies trapped in homogeneous competition had to tell?

Industry data revealed another side: In the first half of 2025, the growth rate of the home appliance market had significantly slowed down. AVC predicted that the annual growth rate would plummet to 2.4%. The incremental market had reached its peak, and the competition in the stock market was fierce. Companies were forced to find new ways out in the "involution".

Thus, a new consensus was quietly formed: The era of single - product competition was coming to an end, and "full - scenario, smart" had become the key to breaking the deadlock.

Dreame no longer just sold floor - sweeping robots but launched a full - range home appliance matrix covering 14 major categories; Hisense turned the TV into the center of a smart home; TCL even incorporated energy management and smart cockpits into its territory.

Behind these coincidental layouts was not only a "technological game" but also a comprehensive competition.

Fully Embracing AI

Looking around the IFA exhibition site, "AI" and "smart" had become the absolute keywords in the booths and new product introductions of major home appliance brands.

From smart cleaning to connected kitchen appliances, from voice assistants to adaptive environmental sensing, almost every high - end home appliance emphasized its AI capabilities.

Hard Krypton learned that at IFA 2025, Dreame Technology exhibited the world's first bionic quadruped tracked stair - climbing floor - sweeping robot, Cyber X; Tineco officially launched its annual flagship product, the Smart Floor Washer F90 Scientist; Both TCL and Midea brought AI robot products; Hisense demonstrated the world's first AI image - quality chip H7 with integrated light - color control.

Artificial intelligence technology was penetrating into home appliance products at an unprecedented speed. In recent years, the scale of the smart home appliance market had been constantly expanding. Analysts from the China Commercial Industry Research Institute predicted that the scale of the Chinese smart home appliance market would reach 793.8 billion yuan in 2025.

While visiting the exhibition, an unavoidable question gradually emerged: For the home appliance industry, was "artificial intelligence" more of a promotional label in market competition or a real driver of a substantial leap in product experience?

Judging from the exhibited products, many companies had moved beyond the stage of simply relying on voice control or mobile phone linkage and started to use AI for environmental sensing, behavior prediction, and multi - device collaboration.

Take Dreame as an example. Its new floor - sweeping robot, Cyber X, was called the "flying floor - sweeping robot". The key to its "flying" lay in the bionic quadruped tracked stair - climbing system, the dual - line laser + AI camera solution, and the triple - braking protection system.

Cyber X broke through the planar movement limitation of traditional floor - sweeping robots and could climb 25 - centimeter steps autonomously, achieving cross - floor cleaning throughout the house. Meanwhile, with the dual - line laser + AI camera, Cyber X could autonomously identify the height, steepness of the stairs, and the external environment and plan the climbing path independently.

(Dreame's IFA Booth)

He Jiantao, the product manager of Dreame's floor - sweeping robot division, said that embodied intelligence or AI had previously changed the voice - control paradigm in the floor - sweeping robot field, moving from fixed responses to dynamic and personalized GPT - style responses.

Now, AI was starting to influence navigation and algorithms. Tineco's newly launched Smart Floor Washer F90 Scientist featured a TMR ultra - sensitive sensor and a 360° AI navigation system, which could accurately sense the user's intention to push or pull and provide all - directional assistance.

(Tineco Launched the Smart Floor Washer F90 Scientist)

The binocular vision + other navigation solutions used in Dreame's latest floor - sweeping robot could quickly avoid suddenly appearing obstacles.

In terms of multi - device collaboration, Hisense used the smart refrigerator with a 21 - inch large screen as the control center for all home appliances, providing full - process intelligent services from shopping to cooking.

The application of AI in the home appliance field seemed to have reached a critical turning point: the technology was initially capable of being implemented.

However, whether it could cross the gap from "demonstration value" to "user value" still needed to be tested by the real market.

Heading towards the Scenario Era

Actually, the home appliance industry as a whole was facing the challenge of slowing growth.

In the first half of 2025, despite the stimulation of national subsidy policies, the semi - annual reports of major home appliance enterprises presented a mixed picture, and the overall consumer growth in the market showed signs of fatigue.

Data monitored by AVC showed that the retail sales of China's non - 3C home appliance market in the first half of the year were 453.7 billion yuan, a year - on - year increase of 9.2%. However, it was predicted that the year - on - year growth rate of the annual retail sales in 2025 would slow down to 2.4%, and there might even be an 8.6% year - on - year decline in the fourth quarter.

Industry insiders generally believed that the home appliance industry had gradually shifted from incremental competition to the stock era, and finding a new growth engine had become the common core issue for enterprises.

Although AI technology had brought a wave of product replacement, and emerging categories such as dryers and dishwashers continued to grow, their current market scales were still difficult to fully offset the impact of the decline in traditional major categories.

Against this background, a new consensus was forming in the industry: The future of smart home appliances no longer depended on the ultimate performance of a single function but increasingly relied on comprehensive capabilities. Consumers' consumption scenarios would also expand from single - device, single - scenario, single - space to multi - device, multi - scenario, and full - space in the home.

This year's IFA exhibition also confirmed this trend. Leading home appliance brands had all jumped out of the single - product logic and turned to all - around competition.

MOVA directly presented 12 smart product lines for indoor and outdoor full - scenario use. Its ZEUS 60 stair - climbing module could climb 25 - centimeter steps, and the SIRIUS 60 was equipped with dual mechanical arms for cleaning and organizing items. Together with the LiDAX Ultra lawn mower, the Rover X10 pool robot, and the window - cleaning robot N1, it achieved full - coverage cleaning from indoors to the courtyard, pool, and even vertical surfaces.

While launching three cleaning products, Tineco further demonstrated products in the categories of smart kitchen appliances like the food - making machine and the smart water purifier for a healthy lifestyle.

In addition to the extra - large - screen TV, TCL also systematically exhibited smart home appliances such as AI air conditioners, washing machines, and refrigerators, and launched a home energy solution and a smart cockpit system, showing its integration ability in the field of "whole - home smart".

Dreame had even greater ambitions. At this IFA exhibition, Dreame's large - home - appliance and new - category matrix was launched in the south - western European market for the first time, covering a total of 14 categories. Meanwhile, Dreame also launched a smart lawn mower and a floor - cleaning system, extending its product boundaries from indoor cleaning to outdoor scenarios such as the courtyard, balcony, and pool.

(Dreame's DZ60 Pro Fully - Built - in Dishwasher)

Overall, IFA 2025 clearly sent a signal: The value of technology no longer only depended on hardware performance but on whether it could be integrated into users' life scenarios. The home appliance industry was officially entering the "scenario era" from the "product era".

The core of future home appliance competition will be the openness of the ecosystem and the continuity of experience - whoever can truly organize products and services around people will find a new growth path in the stock market.