If there’s one thing I learned from the 2025 IFA Consumer Tech Show in Berlin, it’s that AI has taken over marketing, too. Even with my focus on smart homes, it was hard to find a new product or announcement that didn’t have “AI” somewhere in its hype. That’s a problem for the average tech enthusiast, because it’s no longer clear what AI means, if it’s actually AI in the modern sense (which some would argue is even true AI), or if it adds anything worthwhile.
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When is AI actually AI?
When I say AI was everywhere at IFA, I mean it. The buzzword appeared in Switchbot’s fuzzy bear robots and instant-on wall decorations, as well as Roborock’s smart mapping robot lawn mowers and Hisense’s refrigerator guides for recipes. Samsung brought all three of its AI brands to IFA, with a dedicated AI for devices, Vision AI for home entertainment, and Galaxy AI for its phones. And you better believe that voice assistants are now being called “AI voice assistants” whenever possible.
But when so many companies slap that AI label on it, it starts to lose its meaning. How many of these new devices actually constitute the modern definition of AI? I mean the usual generative AI, typically powered by LLMS, that we see every day in the form of Google Gemini and Chatgpt, which can gather information and “talk” to us in conversational ways. Many have some generative capabilities, but calling it AI in the same way as completely runaway chatbots is a stretch at best.
Other uses of AI make it clear that it’s a branding term, something that marketing needs to be these days. It’s frustrating and confusing when there aren’t standard AI features found in an AI-branded product. For example, when Samsung says its custom AI can save energy used by its washing machines, it seems to be referring to the algorithms and sensors that control the wash cycles, something that would never have been called “AI” a few short years ago.
Such moves can diminish the term and distract from products that truly have AI built in—when everything is AI, nothing is. Or at least people are starting to feel that way, which is a marketing problem that companies are only beginning to address.
On the other hand, props to lighting company Lepro, which came to IFA to explain that its voice assistant was actually created using an LLM trained in design concepts to help select the right colors associated with different actions. Details like that make it easier to see if the AI is actually there and what it’s doing (which is also useful for me as a reviewer).
When is AI worth having?
The influx of AI brands raises another dilemma: Is AI actually worth it in the smart home? Are these AI-branded features worth their often higher prices? That’s a tougher question. In some cases, absolutely — especially if you want AI trained to recognize certain faces or scan your videos for you.
In other scenarios, AI doesn’t add much at all. Hisense went to great lengths to add AI to all of its IFA announcements. But some examples fell flat, like the AI voice assistant in its U8 Pro air conditioner, which seems like just a voice assistant and not even that advanced. It’s limited to just 18 voice commands. The advertised AI Cooking Agent and AI Laundry Agent in its kitchen tech seem completely unnecessary, and for everyday tasks we already know how to do, or can find more instructive guides with a quick Google or a question on the smart display.
Even the innovative ai-ProMpt E-ink picture frame from Switchbot, which I can’t wait to try, has a certain “why do I need this?” quality to it. Many of the latest AI pushers suffer from that. We only have so much space in our homes and lives for new smart tech: AI works best when it saves us time and headaches, rather than creating more for us to manage.
This is the part where I toot my own horn, and all of us testers here at CNET. We don’t expect the typical tech shopper to have the time or energy to dig into all these details or quiz voice assistants on every command. So we review devices, phones, apps, and chatbots: to see which ones are worth it, which ones make life better, which ones have privacy issues, which ones hallucinate too much, and all the other nitty-gritty details. When so many products are calling themselves AI this or that, you need experts to strike gold. And IFA 2025 has brought me a whole new list of technologies to sift through.
If you want related home security thoughts, check out what I like about home security AI and see if it could help you.
