March 20, 2025, AWE grandly opened at the Shanghai New International Expo Center, with the theme of "AI Technology, AI Life," showcasing the latest trends in the home appliance and consumer electronics industry. Driven by the wave of artificial intelligence, the AI-ization of home appliances has become a significant trend, among which, the large home appliance exhibition area has become the focal point of technology and innovation. Brands, with AI technology at their core, integrate concepts such as intelligence, environmental protection, and efficiency into their products, demonstrating the deep application of AI in large home appliances. The specific category performances are as follows:

By 2025, outstanding companies such as Gree, Haier, and Hisense have further integrated intelligent interaction in the air conditioning sector, making their products smarter. For example, Gree's AI energy-saving chip can accurately analyze electricity usage habits and environmental data. Haier's Jing Shengdian, equipped with the Lingxi AI energy-saving architecture, can precisely match indoor temperature needs, ensuring cooling and heating effects while effectively reducing energy consumption. Compared to traditional air conditioners, it achieves significant energy savings, alleviating the burden of electricity bills for users. In addition, in 2025, Kelon's magnetic levitation motor technology, by eliminating physical friction, boosts energy efficiency by about 10%. In previous years, although AI technology had been applied in the air conditioning industry, its functions were mostly limited to simple command operations. This year, the showcased air conditioners are noticeably more intelligent.

From the perspective of appearance design, at the 2025AWE exhibition's fashion home area, Kelon air conditioners are displayed in the form of capsule windows, integrating air conditioners with home decoration art, becoming a "space sculpture" that young people use to showcase their aesthetics. In terms of color matching, the Kelon capsule air conditioner adopts the currently popular Morandi color series or the fresh and elegant macaron tones, whether it is suitable for the cold tone home furnishings of simple Nordic style, or the vibrant modern minimalist style home decoration, it can easily blend in, complementing the surrounding environment, becoming a visual highlight in the space, rather than an abrupt presence.

Gree has launched a national style air conditioner, perfectly blending traditional Chinese elements with modern technology. Its appearance adopts classical Chinese painting patterns such as flowers and birds, and landscapes, delicately presented on the air conditioner's body, showcasing a rich cultural heritage. This national style design not only meets consumers' pursuit of aesthetics but also turns the air conditioner into an artistic embellishment in the home that conveys the charm of traditional culture, giving the technological product a unique humanistic sentiment and artistic beauty.

Trend Three: Health Features More Comprehensive

In terms of health functions, many brands of air conditioners this year are equipped with air quality monitoring features that can monitor indoor air quality in real-time. When pollutants exceed standards, the purification function is automatically activated. For example, TCL's Little Blue Wing fresh air function, which comes with TVOC monitoring, has a five-layer purification filter. Turning on the fresh air function can purify indoor stale air, including formaldehyde.

Haier's sleep-friendly fresh air conditioner uses a water-washable and recyclable fresh air module, which can be removed for cleaning once a year, with no need to replace consumables for 12 years. After cleaning, the filtration removal rate still reaches 99%. Casarte air conditioners also excel in air purification, with the powerful ability to remove 7 types of pollutants. Through advanced filters and purification technology, they can effectively filter out dust, pollen, smoke, bacteria, viruses, formaldehyde, and TVOC, comprehensively ensuring indoor air cleanliness.

Trend Four: Greater Breakthroughs in Air Delivery Technology

In terms of air delivery technology, in the past, air conditioning airflow was mostly in a fixed mode, making it difficult to meet complex needs. By 2025, Changhong's Guest Dining Pro air conditioner will feature core long-throw and close-range soft air delivery technology, with an air delivery distance of up to 20 meters, combined with patented golden ratio airflow technology to avoid wind sensation. Gree's "wind does not blow on people" cabinet air conditioner uses dual upper and lower outlets and separate cold and warm air delivery technology; during cooling, cold air is blown out from above and naturally descends, while during heating, hot air rises closely along the floor, solving the problem of direct cold wind. Some Haier Smart Wind air conditioners also have intelligent anti-direct blowing functions, making the airflow even softer.

AI's projection in washing and care can be reflected in various aspects. On one hand, through AI, washing machines can sense the state, material, and degree of dirtiness of clothes, thereby determining the appropriate washing program and the amount of detergent to use; on the other hand, AI can help washing machines achieve functions such as self-diagnosis of faults, preventive maintenance, intelligent control, and energy consumption reduction. At this AWE, multiple companies including Haier, Casarte, Hisense, Panasonic, and Samsung have all highlighted AI as a key promotional feature. Haier demonstrated the application of AI across production lines, visual technology, solutions, and energy-saving cycles through an open exhibition hall spanning the venue, making people truly feel that AI is gradually integrating deeply with traditional home appliance enterprises.

Product "appearance" comprehensively upgraded

One of the biggest highlights of this AWE is the further upgrade in the "appearance" of washing and care products, with multiple exhibition areas catching the eye:

Product depth: The installation depth of mainstream 10kg products is all below 600mm, with some products already breaking the 550mm mark, and the ultra-thin concept is gradually shifting from a high-end feature to a standard configuration;

Embedded design: The washing machine body panel transitions from an outwardly convex curved surface to a 90° pure flat cut, deeply integrating into the home system, seamlessly blending in;

Control panel: A striking and elegant multi-program color screen + a high-tech touch knob gradually replacing the old-style control panel, embodying the beauty of technology and simplicity;

Body color: From the high-end and substantial Panasonic Mount Everest slate gray, to the visual impact of the blue and white contrast of the LG washing and drying tower, to the retro tones of Hisense Roman Holiday, to the exquisite and cute color matching of the Leader triple-drum "national treasure". Different brands showcase their unique abilities, with a dazzling array of product "looks".

In recent years, the concept of partitioned washing machines has taken root in people's hearts. Typically, there are two solutions for separating laundry: one is to add a small-capacity washing machine outside the existing standard washing machine to meet the washing needs of undergarments, maternal and infant care, and other scenarios. Leading brands such as Haier, Casarte, and Roborock have showcased related products, while veteran joint ventures Siemens and Bosch have exhibited 3kg wall-mounted products. TCL has even successfully crossed over, collaborating with Minions to release a mini pulsator washing machine; the second solution is to "create" new washing spaces on the existing washing machine. This time, Leader showcased its recently released three-drum washing machine, which boasts an ultra-large capacity of 12.5 (10.5+1+1) and an ultra-high wash ratio of 1.2, with a striking black and white color scheme. The combination of high performance and good looks attracted a large crowd to the Leader booth. In addition, Hisense also displayed its new three-drum washing machine, featuring a large drum with 13+9 heat pump washing and drying, and dual small drums with 1+1, highlighting the product's technological strengths.

Clothing care machines may become the new structural pull of the washing and care industry

Focusing on the drying function, multiple brands have launched new garment care machines, which may become an important driver for industry upgrades. Unlike regular dryers, garment care machines often come equipped with functions such as wrinkle removal, deodorization, sterilization, disinfection, and fluffing, enabling clothes to maintain a good texture and wearing effect. At this AWE, Samsung showcased several new models of garment care machines, featuring a dual-airflow + dual-steam care system, with a large capacity design that can accommodate up to 9 shirts for simultaneous care; Casarte integrated the concepts of washing, drying, and caring, launching a separate washing and care center that not only meets consumers' gradually upgrading care needs but also perfectly blends quality life with an artistic atmosphere. In addition, brands like Panasonic and Royalstar also exhibited new garment care machine products, marking a new direction for industry upgrades.

Despite the pressure on the refrigerator market development in 2025, the AWE venue was still filled with an atmosphere of industrial innovation and technological advancement. Overall, three major characteristics were presented:

Industry Expansion: From the product side, focusing on food storage scenarios, the industry has diversified into personalized ice bar storage scenarios. Haier and Hisense have respectively launched afternoon tea ice bars and e-sports ice bars, providing new growth paths for the development of the refrigerator industry; from the brand side, in addition to the active layout of refrigerator companies, kitchen appliance companies such as Fangtai and Boss continue to cultivate the refrigerator market. The pursuit of large home appliances has attracted widespread attention in the industry, and the release of the Z-Fresh series has provided new possibilities for the expansion of industry scale.

AI Empowerment: As AI technology rapidly penetrates household products, the freshness preservation capability of refrigerators has been significantly enhanced with technological support; Haier's Joy series is equipped with AI full-space freshness preservation technology, while the new Maile series features voice interaction, bringing refrigerators back onto the path of intelligent development; new products such as the AI Smart Eye refrigerator in the Casarte Connoisseur series and the Hisense AI Vacuum Freshness Preservation refrigerator continue to emerge, demonstrating that AI's technological empowerment of home appliances is already showing its potential.

Home Aesthetics: Two years after the embedded trend swept the refrigerator industry, many embedded elements can still be seen at the AWE site. Among them, Panasonic's Shounashi, Norwegian Sea, and other series of products deeply interpret the aesthetics of embedding and efficient storage; Siemens' "Boundless·Master Zero Embed" product provides users with a variety of appearance options on the basis of being embedded. Samsung, LG, Jinghong, and others also showcased ultra-thin flat-embedded products. Overall, the refrigerator industry has maintained its consistent pursuit of "freshness" and "beauty," focusing on the improvement of preservation functions and efficiency, and strengthening the application of home aesthetics in refrigerator products. It is expected that the refrigerator market will welcome a spectacular new product show in the second quarter.