IFA is still full of devices: screens, appliances, earbuds, robot cleaners, wearables, smart lights, AI PCs, energy systems, kitchen technologies, beauty devices, mobility concepts and connected home products.

But one of the strongest signals this year is not the number of devices. It is the way brands are increasingly trying to connect them.

IFA’s Media Days already pointed in that direction, with AEG, Anker, Dreame, Liebherr, Shokz, Xiaomi and XPENG presenting products and technologies for connected everyday life. IFA’s own smart living coverage also frames AI as moving from an isolated feature into an integrating layer of everyday life.

That changes the competitive game.

For years, consumer-tech brands could compete by making devices more powerful, more beautiful, more connected or more intelligent. That still matters. But when every product becomes smart, connected and AI-enabled, the device itself becomes only part of the story.

The sharper questions are different.

Does the product make life easier? Does it fit into a broader system? Does it reduce friction? Does it create a more useful living experience? Can customers understand it? Can retailers explain it? Can the brand own the system narrative?

A smart device does one thing better.

A smart living system connects several things around a human need.

That distinction matters. A smart oven is useful. A cooking system that helps plan, prepare, monitor, learn and reduce daily decisions is more powerful. A connected battery is useful. A home energy system that manages solar, storage, appliances and EV charging is more strategic. A robot vacuum is useful. A home robotics ecosystem that reduces repetitive household friction is more defensible. A wearable is useful. A wellbeing system that connects data, behaviour, prevention and recovery is more meaningful.

This is where IFA is signalling a broader shift. Its Smart Home area highlights ecosystems, interoperability, energy efficiency, security, privacy, AI-powered automation and connected household technologies.

Not only products. Ecosystems.
Not only connectivity. Interoperability.
Not only automation. Orchestration.
Not only convenience. Comfort, efficiency, safety and sustainability.

That is a different competitive frame.

The AI story is also changing.

AI is no longer being positioned only as a feature inside one product. Increasingly, it is being framed as a connective layer across products, routines and environments.

When AI sits inside a single product, the value proposition is often narrow: better image, better sound, better cleaning, better recipe, better recommendation, better automation. When AI connects across a living system, the promise becomes broader: less effort, better coordination, more personalisation, lower energy cost, higher safety, more comfort, better wellbeing.

This is why AI claims need stronger commercial translation.

“AI-powered” is no longer enough. The customer question is becoming: powered to do what, across which moments, with which proof, and with what visible benefit?

The brands that win will not simply add AI labels. They will make AI feel like useful orchestration.

One interpretation of this year’s IFA is that the home is becoming a broader consumer-tech platform.

LG is presenting an expanded AI Home ecosystem for European lifestyles, including Homey-powered home energy management, connecting AI appliances, home hubs and services.

Midea is presenting SMART MASTER as an AI-powered home ecosystem, with agents designed to manage energy use, comfort and service support across the home.

Xiaomi is using IFA to showcase its “Human × Car × Home” smart ecosystem, powered by HyperOS and connecting vehicles, smartphones and connected home electronics.

The pattern is clear. Energy is no longer just a utility topic. Appliances are no longer isolated machines. Smart home is no longer only lights, sensors and security. Mobility increasingly connects with the home. AI becomes the coordination layer.

This creates a new competitive question: who owns the home operating logic?

In practical terms: who makes energy, appliances, security, mobility, comfort and services work together in a way customers can understand?

I help CEOs and leadership teams read these market shifts before they become obvious in sales numbers. Through Scan, Shape, Scale and Augment, I analyse how categories are moving, where propositions are converging, where portfolios become harder to understand, and where AI can create real commercial leverage.

Around IFA, this means turning product announcements into sharper management questions: which categories are moving from products to systems, which claims need proof, which portfolios need clearer architecture, and which brands are building an advantage through commercial translation, not just innovation volume.

Explore the scans: fredericmartin.eu/scans
Explore the system: fredericmartin.eu

The move towards smart living systems is attractive. But it creates a harder portfolio problem.

The more products a brand connects, the more difficult the story becomes.

A single device needs a clear benefit. A system needs a clear architecture.

Customers need to understand what belongs together, what the entry point is, what works today, what becomes better over time, and why the system is worth choosing over a collection of individual products.

Retailers need to know what to lead with. Sales teams need to know the hero story. Partners need to understand the integration logic. Marketing teams need to avoid turning the ecosystem into a catalogue.

This is where many consumer-tech brands risk overloading the market.

They have more products, more features, more AI, more connectivity and more scenarios. But the commercial story becomes harder to repeat.

Ecosystems do not sell themselves. They need hierarchy.

Smart living also expands the role of trust.

The old smart home was often about control: switch, monitor, automate. The new smart living promise is more human: support, adapt, reduce effort, improve comfort, protect, prevent, personalise.

That is a stronger narrative, but also a more demanding one.

Wellbeing claims require trust. Home data requires sensitivity. Personalisation requires relevance. AI assistance requires explainability. Security and privacy become part of the value proposition, not technical footnotes.

The more intimate the use case, the more important trust becomes.

Smart living systems also change retail execution.

Retailers are used to selling categories: TVs, headphones, appliances, cameras, laptops, vacuum cleaners, lights, kitchen devices, routers, batteries. But smart living systems cut across categories.

That creates a merchandising problem. A training problem. A demonstration problem. A comparison problem. A service problem.

How should a retailer sell an AI home ecosystem? Where does it sit in-store? Which product starts the story? Who explains energy management? Who owns installation? How does the sales team compare open ecosystems with closed ecosystems? How do they explain privacy, compatibility and upgrades?

The more systemic the proposition, the more important retail explainability becomes.

This is why smart living is not only a product strategy. It is a GTM challenge.

There is one obvious risk at IFA: brands may use system language before they deliver a system experience.

Connected does not always mean coherent.
Compatible does not always mean easy.
AI-powered does not always mean useful.
An ecosystem does not always mean the customer experiences it as one.

Consumers have heard smart-home promises for years. Many have also experienced fragmentation, setup friction, app overload, compatibility issues and unclear value.

That history matters.

For smart living systems to become commercially powerful, brands need to reduce the gap between vision and experience. They need to prove that the system makes life easier, not just more connected.

IFA is still full of smart devices. But one of the strongest competitive signals this year is that consumer-tech brands are trying to turn devices into broader smart living systems.

That changes the rules of competition.

Features still matter, but they are no longer enough. AI still matters, but claims need proof. Portfolios still matter, but they need architecture. Ecosystems still matter, but they need explainability. Interoperability still matters, but it needs trust. Innovation still matters, but it needs commercial translation.

The winners will not only launch smarter devices.

They will make the system easier to understand, easier to trust and easier to sell.

For any consumer-tech brand watching IFA, the question is no longer only: how smart is our product?

The sharper questions are:

What role does our product play in the customer’s broader life system? Which adjacent categories are starting to shape our value proposition? Where does AI create visible relief, not just technical enhancement? Can a retailer explain our ecosystem in one minute? Is our portfolio architecture clear enough to support a system story? Where do we need proof before we scale the claim? Are we making life simpler, or only adding more connected complexity?

Those questions reveal whether the brand is still competing device by device, or whether it is ready for the next consumer-tech battleground.

Smart devices created the category.

Smart living systems may decide the next winners.

From The Strategic Brief
What IFA Press Day Already Reveals About Consumer Tech Competition
Stop Reading Category Reports. Start Running Live Category Scans.
Consumer Tech Has Enough Innovation. The Problem Is Commercial Translation.
AI Is Everywhere at IFA. Which Brand Claims Survive the Value Test?
The 20-Minute Pre-IFA Portfolio Scan
Most CEOs Don’t Need More Dashboards. They Need Sharper Signal Detection.
I Did Not Build a Consulting Framework. I Built the Commercial System I Kept Needing.

Explore further
IFA Scans: fredericmartin.eu/scans
Scan: fredericmartin.eu/scan
Shape: fredericmartin.eu/shape
Augment: fredericmartin.eu/augment