TCL is using IFA 2026 in Berlin to sell a future where the home thinks first and people think less. The company is showing large-format Mini-LED televisions, smartphones, AR glasses and connected home appliances under the theme "AI Inspired Life," with chief marketing officer Stefan Streit saying the point is to make AI solve "a problem" rather than exist "for the sake of AI."
The Home as a Managed System
Streit said TCL uses AI in air conditioning to adjust how the system operates depending on conditions in the room. He said the company can "save energy for up to 37% thanks to AI," because the system can monitor the room and change temperature while someone sleeps. "If you would move around, it starts lower, et cetera," he said. That’s the pitch: a home that watches, measures and corrects, all in the name of efficiency.
TCL’s NXTHOME concept brings together displays, household appliances and other connected technologies to show how different devices could work together in everyday life. The company’s broader vision goes beyond televisions because, as Streit put it, "Today, almost everything has a display, right?" TCL draws on TCL CSOT, which he called "the leading display manufacturer in the world," to push visual experiences into different products and formats. The message from the booth is clear enough. The screen is everywhere. So is the system behind it.
The company is also trying to make screens less distracting, which is a neat trick for a business built on keeping people plugged in. Its NXTPAPER technology lets users switch a smartphone into a simplified e-reader mode that filters much of the blue light from conventional displays, reduces eye strain, switches off some functions, cuts notifications and other interruptions, and may extend battery life. "When you want to read on a weekend, you don't want to have the disturbance of every app that gives you a notification," Streit said. The problem, apparently, is not the device economy itself. It’s the noise.
The Smart Home, the Smarter Market
Haier is showing a washing machine with an integrated camera and AI that can detect what has been put into the drum and alert users if, for example, a red sock has ended up among white clothes. Neil Tunstall, CEO of Haier Europe, said cooking is another area where appliances are taking over more of the planning and decision-making. "The product now will do that for you," he said. "And that hopefully means then that we can actually enjoy eating much more at home." He added, "We are talking less about products, much more about experiences, we're talking less about consumers trying to think about things and the products and the system itself thinking, making life much, much smarter."
That’s the language of the connected home at IFA 2026: less thinking, more systems. Less choice, more automation. The fair, which opened to the public on Sept. 4, 2026, runs until Sept. 8 and features more than 1,900 brands from 49 countries under the theme "The Future is Now." Euronews said the event shows how emerging technologies are reshaping daily life, from mobility to the increased use of AI in devices and services.
US-based Cozyla is showing how AI could coordinate family schedules, work and meal planning. Its stand takes visitors through a simulated day in a connected home, using interactive displays and digital calendars to coordinate routines and schedules, then a kitchen setup where a recipe can be scanned and used to help plan a meal, then a living room where the system organizes tasks and coordinates plans between family members, before ending with a bedtime routine. The family, in this version of the future, becomes another workflow.
From Bedrooms to Borderless Monitoring
Hong Kong-based BestQi, founded in 2020, is showing the AMADA Smart Adaptive Sleeping System, which combines an adjustable bed with a mattress that uses sound and vibrations and can be controlled through an app. Each side of the bed can be adjusted independently, and users can control massage functions, vibration intensity and programmes for sleeping, relaxing or reading. South Korean company Bodyfriend is showing the Quantum Beauty Capsule, a full-body massage chair with LED modules for the face and scalp, and the Davinci AI, which uses a fingertip PPG sensor to measure heart rate, heart rate variability and blood oxygen saturation. The company says the system uses changes in those measurements to provide information about physical condition, stress and recovery.
IFA also includes connected pet devices. Singapore-based Petgugu is presenting a self-cleaning smart cat toilet and a robot that can move around the home, clean up pet hair and interact with animals when owners are away. A robot dog, the MagicDog Y1, developed by a Chinese robotics company founded in 2024, is intended to follow people across different environments, carry equipment and use integrated cameras and sensors for monitoring and security.
Streit described TCL’s AR glasses as "James Bond glasses." "It actually projects the pictures in my natural field of view and you don't see it, but I will get some information. I can use this for translation or navigation," he said. The sales pitch is sleek. The logic is old. Devices that watch, track, predict and nudge people through daily life are being packaged as convenience, while the fair in Berlin turns that arrangement into a consumer spectacle.
The biggest change in the home of the future may not be a single device but how different devices work together. The article says the key difference from many smart products already on the market is the combination of connectivity and AI, creating an ecosystem in which appliances and services communicate, share information and increasingly anticipate what needs to be done. The goal, the article says, is for people to spend less time managing devices and household tasks and more time with family, friends and the things they want to do. At IFA 2026, that future arrives with a lot of screens, a lot of sensors and a very familiar promise: let the system think for you.