Fierce Electronics caught up with Seong-Hyok Sean Kim, CTO of LG Electronics and a keynoter at Sensors Converge 2025. His topic: Sensing as an AI Service for Smart Space. He talks about how the era of smart home sensing for air conditioners and air purifiers is already being enriched with AI insights, with implications for industrial applications as well.
Fierce: What's the elevator pitch about your keynote at Sensors Converge?
Lee: My talk will be about the true customer value that smart homes or smart spaces should provide, most importantly the value that customers are willing to pay for. I will discuss how smart appliances, equipped with AI sensing technology, are evolving. Notable examples include air conditioners, air purifiers, washing machines, and dryers that are integrated with advanced sensing capabilities with software and AI and are already commercialized.
Fierce: What would be a contextual insight gleaned with sensors?
Lee: Contextual insights will be as follows : 1) LG washing machines and dryers that can sense real-time water contamination and the condition and dryness of laundry, which may be useful to further understand customer lifestyles; 2) LG air conditioners equipped with mmWave radar technology that can detect the presence, location, and activities of users, and 3) LG AI air purifiers that feature programmable and upgradeable AI multi-environment sensors. These products are already available in the market.
Fierce: How popular will these abilities be for consumers?
Lee: These AI sensing capabilities are gaining significant popularity among consumers. We are seeing positive feedback and recognition for these products, particularly due to their unique features that differentiate them from competitors. The number of products equipped with these capabilities is rapidly increasing, indicating a strong consumer interest you can find in links below.
LG in January introduced an air purifier that uses AI to detect nine types of pollutants, including harmful gases and oil vapors.(Link in English and link in Korean.) A video describes how a consumer used an air purifier to detect gases and particulates from ordinary home cooking.
LG also announced an upgraded residential air conditioner, which uses an AI DUAL Inverter to detect ambient temperature of the space and then intelligently adjusts temperature, airflow and speed. It has a human detecting sensor to tracks a user’s location and learns patterns through spatial analysis to create the most efficient airflow pathway. (Link in English and Link in Korean.)
Fierce: Do you think smart home capabilities will embolden further AI and sensing in industrial settings?
Lee: Absolutely and that should be so. With all the connected home appliances with AI sensing technologies, we can analyze broader data sets which will enhance our understanding of customer needs, allowing us to offer more customer value.
We believe that this is going to and will shift from a traditional manufacturing and sales model base businesses to a subscription-based model and data platform-based business models that provide valuable meaningful services and consumables at the right time for our customers, totally different from so-called AI smart home with bunch of IFTTT type services. The expansion of this model is indeed an exciting development in the industry, which is being driven by relentless efforts to create real, valuable customer value.
Lee will offer his keynote at Sensors Converge 2025 on June 25. The event runs June 24-26 in Santa Clara, CA. A free Expo Hall pass is available by using the code HAMBLEN during registration.