LG Electronics (066570) will present a blueprint for "AI Living" — a vision of homes that manage and coordinate daily routines on their own — at IFA 2026, Europe's largest consumer electronics show. Chinese companies are also arriving in force, leading with mobility and advanced robotics. This year's IFA has become a fierce contest among global companies seeking to claim the future housing platform and AI-connected ecosystem, going well beyond the simple launch of new appliances.
LG Electronics said on the 3rd that it will build a 3,745-square-meter exhibition space at IFA 2026 in Berlin under the theme "Innovation Tailored to You," showcasing about 150 core products and an evolved AI Home ecosystem.
At the center of the ecosystem are the AI Home hub "ThinQ ON" and the action-oriented AI agent "ThinQ CLAW." The system understands spoken requests and analyzes users' living patterns to adjust the home environment before being told to. In particular, the company is fully integrating "Homey" from Athom, the platform company it acquired in 2024, to build a home energy management system (HEMS) that spans some 50,000 third-party devices along with HVAC and solar power — declaring its leap into becoming a "smart home platform company."
Europe-specific hardware and a shift in business model also stand out. The "Fit & Max" lineup, which pairs built-in design with high-efficiency AI technology, has been expanded from refrigerators to washing machines, dishwashers and home appliances more broadly. The company has also given 46% of its entire booth to space dedicated to business-to-business (B2B) meetings. That is its largest such allocation ever, aimed at competing for "space solution package" orders from European construction firms and real estate developers.
At the entrance to the exhibition hall, the home robot "LG CLOiD" greets visitors. On a 16-meter-wide kinetic light-emitting diode (LED) stage, CLOiD serves as a conductor, staging appliances, televisions and air-conditioning equipment working in concert like an orchestra. The display embodies the future of the "Zero Labor Home," in which artificial intelligence and robots handle household chores on their own and eliminate domestic labor entirely.
German premium appliance maker Miele countered with the slogan "The end of housework is in sight," pushing home automation that removes even the need for users to make decisions. It presented products including the next-generation "G8 Diamond" dishwasher, whose AI camera identifies the type of dishes and how dirty they are and sets the optimal cycle on its own, laying out a plan to eliminate the burden of operating appliances altogether.
Xiaomi of China, appearing at IFA for the first time, showed off an ecosystem linking "people, cars and homes" in a 3,300-square-meter standalone pavilion. It rolled out more than 380 products, including the high-performance "SU7 Ultra" electric vehicle, a foldable phone with an in-house chip, and humanoid robots deployed on manufacturing lines.
