At IFA 2025, tech giants like Amazon, Google, Samsung, and LG, and startups like Doma, are expected to showcase how AI could make smart homes more intuitive
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge :
Context & Ripple Effects
Smart-home interoperability has been the enabling backdrop: Matter drew broad support from Apple, Amazon, Google, Samsung, and others, while LG and Samsung later committed to cross-control between their home apps and devices.
IFA extends a show-cycle narrative in which AI features have moved into consumer hardware, following AI-focused TVs and Matter devices expected at CES 2025. The relevant question is whether AI makes existing connected-home systems easier to use rather than merely adding another feature label.
First-order effects
- Amazon, Google, Samsung, LG, and Doma are set to compete for attention at IFA with AI-led visions of a more intuitive smart home, putting user experience—not just device connectivity—at the center of their demonstrations.
- Consumers and industry buyers will get a clearer comparison of how established platform owners and a startup position AI for home control; the report does not establish that any particular feature has launched.
Second-order effects
- If these demonstrations make cross-device control feel more useful, smart-home vendors will face greater pressure to connect AI features to interoperable devices and apps rather than keep them confined to a single brand ecosystem.
- The event also raises the burden of proof for AI home claims, after CES 2024’s broad AI rebranding highlighted the risk that consumer-facing promises outpace practical benefits.
Third-order effects
- The smart-home market may shift from selling discrete connected devices toward competing on the software layer that interprets routines, context, and commands across them—provided interoperability and reliable outcomes keep improving.
- Platform owners with large installed bases could gain an advantage in distributing these experiences, while smaller vendors may need compatibility with those ecosystems to remain visible.
The trend: Smart-home competition is evolving from connectivity standards toward ambient AI interfaces that aim to make multi-device homes easier to manage.