One new trend is dominating every tech show this year, especially the home tech I saw at Berlin's 2025 IFA (Innovation for All) event. Companies are putting AI everywhere in their marketing and product info — even if it doesn't make sense.
Tech fans are already arguing over what AI means, if certain technologies like chatbots are actually AI and whether certain AI features are even worth having (especially at the price of privacy). Brands are clouding the waters, which isn't helping. Here are my two biggest concerns: Are all these new AI labels actually AI, and if they are, can they really help buyers?
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When is AI actually AI?
Ai like Samsung's Bespoke sounds fancy, but sometimes it's just basic algorithms underneath. Ajay Kumar/CNET
When I say artificial intelligence was everywhere at IFA, I mean it. The buzzword showed up in SwitchBot's fuzzy bear robots and prompt-based 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 Bespoke AI for appliances, Vision AI for home entertainment and Galaxy AI for its phones. And you better believe that voice assistants are now called "AI voice assistants" whenever possible.
But when so many companies slap on that AI label, it starts losing meaning. How many of these new devices actually have the modern definition of AI? I mean the common generative AIs, typically powered by LLMs, that we see every day in the form of Google Gemini and ChatGPT, which can summarize information and "talk" to us in conversational ways. Many do have some generative capabilities, but calling them AI in the same vein as fully fledged chatbots is a stretch at best.
Other uses of AI make it clear it's a branding term, something that marketing needs to have these days. It's disappointing and confusing when there are no standard AI features to be found in an AI-branded product. For example, when Samsung says its Bespoke AI can save energy used by its washing machines, it appears to refer to algorithms and sensors that control washing cycles, something that would never be called "AI" a few short years ago.
Moves like this can cheapen the term and distract from products that really do have built-in artificial intelligence -- when everything's AI, nothing is. Or at least people start to feel that way, which is a marketing problem companies have only begun to face.
On the other hand, props to lighting company Lepro, which came to IFA ready to explain that its voice assistant really was created using an LLM trained on design concepts to help pick the right colors associated with a variety of activities. Details like these make it easier to see if the AI is really there and what it's doing (that's also helpful to me as a reviewer).
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