AI was everywhere at IFA 2026 again… But after three days of hearing those two letters on almost every stand, ERT Editor Will McGill asks whether it is time we stopped talking quite so much about AI – and started talking about what it actually does.

I’m bored of AI.

There, I said it.

After spending three days walking around IFA, I lost count of the number of times I heard those two letters.

AI TVs. AI washing machines. AI ovens. AI dishwashers. AI fridges. AI vacuum cleaners. AI smart homes. AI assistants. AI companions.

AI, AI, AI.

The funny thing is, though, I’m not actually bored of AI. Far from it. The technology is so cool, and some of what I saw in Berlin was genuinely impressive.

What I’m bored of is the way we talk about it.

There seemed to be this feeling at IFA that putting ‘AI’ in front of something automatically made it more exciting. And perhaps a couple of years ago it did. But when absolutely everything is apparently powered by AI, the term starts to lose its meaning.

Take some of the appliances on show.

Miele was demonstrating its new G8 dishwasher, which can recognise what has been loaded and adjust the programme accordingly – which is seriously impressive. Siemens showed an oven capable of recognising more than 100 different dishes. Across the halls, manufacturers were showing washing machines that can better understand what is in the drum, ovens that take some of the guesswork out of cooking and appliances that can help reduce energy consumption.

That’s clever stuff.

But do we really need to lead with the fact that it is AI?

If I’m buying a washing machine, I’m probably not walking into my local electrical retailer and asking: “Have you got anything with artificial intelligence?”

Although, if I walked into Currys, I’d probably spend more time trying to find a human than worrying about the AI.

I want something that cleans my clothes properly, doesn’t cost a fortune to run and, ideally, isn’t going to shrink my favourite jumper.

The same applies to an oven. Most people don’t care what algorithm is running behind the scenes. If the oven can recognise what you’re cooking, choose the right settings and stop you cremating Sunday dinner, now that is the interesting bit.

And I think that is where the conversation around AI has become a little boring.

We spend so much time talking about the technology that we sometimes forget to talk about the benefit.

Samsung spoke at IFA about its vision for AI-powered living. Hisense had its ‘Companion Living’ concept – although, if it needs a name, surely it has to be Harmony? Harmony with Hisense. TCL was talking about TVs becoming more intelligent hubs for the home, while Haier demonstrated appliances that can recognise food, monitor cooking and make decisions based on what is happening inside them.

There was a lot going on.

But really, aren’t they all trying to do the same thing?

Make our lives easier.

Surely that should be the story?

One of the more interesting discussions I saw on the IFA programme was actually called ‘AI in the Kitchen: Helpful, Hype, or Harmful?’

And, actually, that pretty much sums it up.

Because there is undoubtedly some hype.

We’re at that stage where AI is being attached to almost everything, and I do sometimes wonder whether consumers are starting to switch off when they hear it.

We’ve been here before.

Smart was the word everybody wanted a few years ago. Everything had to be ‘smart’. Then everything had to be ‘connected’. Now everything has to be ‘AI’.

Eventually, though, we stop talking about these things. They just become part of the product.

Nobody walks into a shop asking about the processor controlling their washing machine. They care about what the washing machine does.

I suspect AI will eventually go the same way.

In fact, perhaps the best AI will be the AI you don’t even realise you’re using.

If my dishwasher can work out how dirty the plates are and change the cycle without me touching anything, great.

If my washing machine knows what is in the drum and stops me ruining something, even better.

If my fridge can genuinely help me waste less food, I’m interested.

And if my robot vacuum can finally work out that a phone charger isn’t something it needs to eat, sign me up.

But tell me that.

Don’t just tell me it has AI.

I actually think there is a big opportunity here.

One thing IFA really hammered home for me is just how much is now going on behind the scenes in products that, to the customer, are still just a washing machine, an oven or a television.

Someone still needs to explain all of that to them.

And that is something good retailers have always done brilliantly.

You don’t need to explain neural networks, machine learning or whatever the latest buzzword happens to be. You need to be able to stand next to an appliance and say: “This is what it does, and this is why it will make your life easier.”

That means far more to a customer than sticking ‘AI’ on the front of the box. How you transfer those details to the consumer is probably the hardest part – but also the most important.

I was listening to a podcast recently and they spoke about the idea of answering the ‘unasked questions’.

The point was that customers won’t always tell you what they want to know. Sometimes they don’t know what to ask in the first place, and sometimes they’re simply too polite to ask – something that can be particularly true of younger consumers who might be more comfortable researching something themselves than approaching someone in a shop.

So perhaps the challenge isn’t always waiting for the customer to ask, “What does the AI actually do?”

You almost have to answer that question before they’ve even thought about asking it.

That could be through the conversation you have with them, a demonstration, a bit of signage next to the product, a video on your website or even something they come across on social media before they’ve set foot in the shop. Create the scenario for them: “Ever put something in the wash and worried you’ve chosen the wrong programme?” Well, here’s how this machine helps with that.

Suddenly you’re not selling AI. You’re answering a question the customer might never have asked out loud.

And despite my moaning, I came away from IFA excited by a lot of what I saw.

Appliances are getting better at understanding how people actually use them. Energy efficiency continues to improve. Products are becoming easier to use. Robotics is moving at an incredible pace. And some of the technology manufacturers are developing now would have looked ridiculous only a few years ago.

None of that is boring.

AI isn’t boring either.

But talking endlessly about AI certainly can be.

So perhaps by the time we all get back to Berlin for IFA 2027, we can spend a little less time telling everyone that a product has AI.

I think we’ve got that message now.

Instead, tell me what it actually does.

Does it save me money? Does it make the product easier to use? Will it stop me ruining dinner? Is it going to do something that makes me think, “Bloody hell, that’s clever”?

Because that’s the stuff I came away from IFA excited about.

AI isn’t boring. Far from it.

I think I might just be suffering from a severe case of AIhaustion – do you see what I did there!?

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