On 24 October, Chinese kitchen appliances brand Fotile hosted its brand event called “幸福洞见大会” (lit. Happiness Insights Conference) to release its latest “Smart Fridge” and what caught the eyes of many pundits is its cooking assistant large language model (LLM).
The LLM, called ‘Healthy Cooking GPT’, combines the power of AI and smart home to streamline healthy cooking. Users can input basic personal information and health requirements such as age or pregnancy, so the AI can build a profile and recommend dishes. Combining hardware with software, Fotile has built an AI-powered ecosystem, the Uchef 2.0, which includes its oven, hob and smart cookers and has incorporated cooking modules that weigh, stir and heat the food for you. Making the AI more powerful than just a chatbot.
On Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform, the topic “Fotile Happiness Insights Conference” gained a whopping 50.38 million views. However, it is likely most of the traffic was brought in by brand ambassador actor Chen Kun, who was featured heavily at the event.
Actually, Fotile is far from the first Chinese kitchen appliances brand to create its own LLM. Robam (老板电器) and Wandechu (万得厨) both released their own AI models in June and September, respectively. Robam’s system also allows control of the brand’s hardware. The home appliances market has seen a lack of interest from consumers lately. AVC data shows that the kitchen and bathroom large appliances sector only saw a 0.5% growth in sales units year-on-year (YoY) during H1 2024. AI and smart home are both on trend among PC and mobile device builders. With Fotile seeing difficulties in both high-end products and extending into other categories, it is worth watching to see if the brand can find more growth in the “smart” direction.
