Smart living moving into mainstream use

In the morning, the microwave oven recognizes what's inside, recommends a recipe and fine-tunes the cooking time automatically. Step outside, directions are no longer confined to a phone screen — they appear seamlessly in your field of view through AI glasses.

While commuting, a simple voice command lets an AI assistant compare options and place an order. By the time you get home, an AI companion toy can sense your mood and, through ongoing interaction, develop a personality uniquely its own.

These seemingly ordinary moments are quietly but consequentially reshaping everyday life for a growing number of people.

Artificial intelligence is moving from screen-based interaction and becoming a constant presence in daily life — sensing context, anticipating needs and acting on its own — woven into smartphones, wearables, home appliances and a widening range of real-world settings.

Consumers are increasingly witnessing the shift firsthand. Sandy Xu Ran, chief executive officer of Chinese e-commerce giant JD.com, said 2025 is shaping up to be a pivotal year for AI consumption, as AI-related searches on the platform have surged nearly 100-fold.

"We have surveyed consumer interest in AI-enabled products and found that nearly half of respondents said AI capabilities are now a must-have feature," Xu said recently at the World Economic Forum annual meeting in Davos. "Artificial intelligence has effectively become a baseline requirement for many products."

The trend is also being echoed by industry experts.

Zhu Keli, founding director of the China Institute of New Economy, said the fast-growing presence of AI in consumer electronics is a natural result of maturing technologies, rising demand and deeper industry collaboration, signaling that smart living is moving beyond concept and into mainstream use.

"Consumers' rising expectations for greater convenience, more personalized experiences and smarter living are accelerating the real-world adoption of the latest AI-enabled technologies in everyday life," he added.

Real-world adoption is increasingly visible in home settings. Drawing on user behavior data, smart home ecosystems are turning traditional household appliances into intelligent systems that sense habits, learn preferences and quietly adjust the lights, temperature and routines — slipping naturally into the rhythm of daily life.

COLMO, a China-based brand that was among the earliest in the industry to promote AI-powered home appliances as a core positioning, has built a seamless smart home ecosystem around its self-developed AI butler system.

For instance, upon arriving home, a simple command — "I'm home" — sets the living room temperature to 26 C, activates the humidifying and air-purifying functions, and adjusts the curtains and lights to their usual evening settings. Later, when it's time to cook, another voice command — "I'm about to start cooking" — triggers the steam oven to preheat, adjusts the range hood to a low setting, turns on its lights, starts a prerinse cycle in the dishwasher, and dims the kitchen lights to a comfortable brightness.

A senior representative of COLMO said that the whole-home smart industry has entered a stage where the focus is on personalized user needs and deeper interaction with consumers, leading to explosive growth in the sector.

Highlighting the market trend, he said: "The whole-home smart technology is shifting from basic, standalone functions to deeper, scenario-based integration, ultimately moving toward proactive intelligence."

Once outside the home, the need for instant information and on-the-go decision-making becomes more pronounced. AI glasses bring navigation, translation and hands-free recording directly into the wearer's line of sight, making information easier to access on the move.

A recent buyer of Rokid AI glasses wrote on lifestyle-sharing platform Xiaohongshu, or Red Note, that the device allows her to capture everyday moments anytime from a first-person perspective, describing it as a genuinely hands-free experience.

Such firsthand experiences are becoming increasingly common. In 2025, the AI glasses market expanded rapidly, with a product once regarded as a niche device for tech enthusiasts gaining broader acceptance among mainstream consumers.

Zhang Yunming, vice-minister of industry and information technology, said at a news conference that shipments of smart glasses exceeded 1.78 million units in the first three quarters of 2025, with nearly 80 percent being AI-powered devices, bringing a stronger sense of technology and futurism to both production and everyday life.

E-commerce data further reinforce the trend.

Xu of JD.com said smart glasses are emerging as a major new engine of consumption, with sales surging tenfold year-on-year in 2025.

According to a forecast from market research company International Data Corp, 2026 is expected to be a key turning point for the mass rollout of smart glasses in China, with major shifts anticipated in product design, user interaction and service models.

As smart devices continue to gain wider adoption, consumer purchasing behavior is evolving in parallel, as interaction with artificial intelligence becomes increasingly intuitive.

Earlier in January, Alibaba's AI-powered application Qwen announced its full integration with Taobao and Alipay's AI payment system, enabling users to complete end-to-end purchases with a single voice command — from ordering food and daily essentials to booking travel gear — as these new AI shopping features roll out in public testing.

For example, when a user tells Qwen to "order a milk tea", it seamlessly connects with Taobao to find the nearest merchant and match the most relevant product, allowing the user to simply confirm the payment and wait for delivery, all without switching apps.

Wu Jia, vice-president of Alibaba Group, said that after building a powerful "brain", AI is now gaining the ability to act in the real world, taking on practical tasks and delivering tangible help to users in everyday life.

"We will continue to move forward step by step, aiming to make the Qwen app the most capable human-AI assistant and truly bring the benefits of AI to everyone," he added.

Zhu of the China Institute of New Economy noted that AI-enabled products will drive growth from both ends of the domestic consumer market — boosting mid — and high-end demand through more innovative experiences, while expanding reach to a broader customer base through ongoing technology upgrades and scaled production, creating a virtuous cycle of growth.

Policy support is also adding momentum to the rise of AI-powered consumption.

Late last year, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, along with five other departments, released an action plan outlining key measures to better align the supply and demand of consumer goods and further stimulate consumption, with an emphasis on strengthening the integrated empowerment of artificial intelligence.

Alongside the booming domestic market for AI-powered consumer products, a growing number of companies are stepping up their expansion into overseas markets.

Rokid, the Chinese maker of AI smart glasses and extended reality devices, announced recently that it is accelerating the expansion of its global retail network, rolling out new channels across Asia and Europe to bring products such as Rokid Glasses and Rokid AI Glasses Style closer to overseas consumers.

The company said it is combining physical retail experience stores with online promotion to enhance global brand visibility while strengthening localized services in international markets.

The expansion underscores China's growing strength in the global AI hardware market. "China has built strong global competitiveness in AI-enabled smart devices, supported by a mature industrial chain that enables faster commercialization and large-scale manufacturing," Zhu said.

Zhang Chenxu and Yin Mingyue contributed to this story.