Samsung’s accelerating connected-appliance sales in India point to a shift in how technology is entering urban homes: artificial intelligence is no longer being positioned only as a premium feature, but as a potential everyday layer of domestic life. The company says newly connected Samsung appliances in India rose from 82,000 in 2022 to 7.32 lakh last year, while the number recorded in the first eight months of the current year had already exceeded the previous year’s total.
That growth is significant not only as a consumer-electronics trend. It reflects the way Indian cities are changing the relationship between households, appliances and time. In Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru, Samsung’s India Consumer Experience unit has linked demand for smarter appliances to busy and high-stress urban lifestyles. The company’s argument is that AI-enabled products are being adopted less for technological novelty than for convenience: automating routine tasks, offering personalised functions and connecting devices across the home.
The evidence supplied by Economic Times, based on a PTI report quoting Samsung executives, does not establish how many Indian households currently operate fully connected homes. It does, however, show that connected appliances are expanding rapidly within Samsung’s customer base and that the company is changing its product strategy in response. The next stage of that strategy is to take AI capabilities into mid-range and entry-level products, rather than restricting them to premium appliances.
### AI appliances in India and the changing urban home
The most important number in Samsung’s account is not only the nine-fold increase in newly connected appliances. It is the age profile of the users driving that increase. Bona Lee, Samsung Electronics’ vice-president and head of the Experience Planning and CX Insight Group for the Digital Appliances Business, said 71% of active SmartThings users in India and Southwest Asia are in their twenties and thirties. The corresponding global average, according to the company, is 48%.
This suggests that the initial market for connected domestic technology is being built by consumers who are already comfortable managing daily activities through digital platforms. Their homes may be smaller or differently configured than those in overseas markets, but their expectations of convenience are rising alongside their use of smartphones and connected services. Samsung said average usage of AI features in India is 10% higher than in other countries, another company-provided indicator of unusually frequent engagement.
The urban dimension matters because the appliance is no longer an isolated object. A refrigerator, washing machine, air conditioner or cooking appliance can now be presented as part of a networked domestic environment. In this model, value comes from the interaction between the device, its software and the user’s routines. The home becomes a site where technology manages small decisions and repetitive actions, particularly for households facing long commutes, demanding work schedules and limited time for domestic tasks.
That does not mean all urban households are moving towards the same model. Samsung’s own account acknowledges that affordability remains an important consideration in India. The company also says average selling prices are influenced by differences in household lifestyles. Its example is the refrigerator market: Indian households often prefer smaller-capacity refrigerators because fresh produce is purchased more frequently, while consumers in some overseas markets favour larger models for storing more frozen food.
This distinction is important for the design of AI-enabled homes. Technology cannot simply be transferred from one market to another with the same assumptions about space, food habits or household routines. Samsung says more than 95% of its appliances sold in India are manufactured domestically and that a dedicated team works on products tailored to Indian lifestyles. Local manufacturing, in this account, is connected not just to production volumes but also to product adaptation.
### From premiumisation to wider adoption
Samsung’s current portfolio shows how quickly AI is being normalised in the appliance category. JB Park, president and chief executive of Samsung Southwest Asia, said more than half of the appliances the company currently sells in India are AI-enabled. Lee said the company plans to extend AI functions to mid-range and entry-level appliances so that a broader set of consumers can access them.
The move is part of a wider premiumisation trend described by South Korean electronics companies operating in India. LG Electronics is pursuing what it calls a “Zero Labor Home” vision, combining AI-powered appliances, connected platforms and home robots to automate domestic work. Young Min Hwang, director of Home Solutions at LG Electronics India, described India as entering a transformative phase of home-appliance premiumisation.
LG has identified India as one of its three strategic growth markets, alongside Saudi Arabia and Brazil. The company is aligning its plants in Greater Noida and Pune with its global AI roadmap, with refrigerators, washing machines, air conditioners and cooking appliances being tailored for Indian consumers. These developments place India simultaneously in two roles: a large market for consumer products and a production base for technologies intended for broader global use.
The competitive activity also shows that the AI-appliance market is being shaped by corporate product roadmaps as much as by demonstrated public demand. Samsung and LG are presenting connected homes as the next stage of appliance ownership, but the supplied evidence does not provide independent market-wide data comparing their sales with those of competitors or measuring adoption across income groups. The available figures therefore show a strong company-reported signal, not a complete picture of India’s household technology market.
Samsung’s decision to expand AI features into lower-priced categories will test whether connected appliances can move beyond affluent and digitally confident consumers. The challenge is not only the purchase price of the appliance. Adoption also depends on the reliability of household internet connections, the usefulness of software features, the ease of repairs and updates, and whether consumers see enough practical value to justify paying more.
### Software may change the replacement cycle
One of Samsung’s more consequential claims concerns software updates. The company said appliances launched from 2024 onwards can receive new features through software updates without requiring consumers to replace the hardware. If sustained, this could alter the conventional replacement cycle for domestic appliances, where new functionality has often been associated with purchasing a newer model.
The implication is potentially important for both households and manufacturers. Consumers could receive additional functions over the life of a product, while companies could maintain an ongoing relationship with users after the initial sale. But the supplied material does not establish how long these updates will be supported, whether all functions will be available across product categories, or how software support will affect repairability and long-term ownership costs.
These unanswered questions will become more important as appliances move into mid-range and entry-level segments. A premium buyer may be more willing to pay for connected features or replace a device when support ends. For a wider household market, the value proposition will depend on whether AI reduces effort in ways that are visible and reliable, rather than simply adding another layer of digital complexity.
The same question applies to data and control. The source material describes connected appliances, personalised functions and higher usage, but it does not provide details about data governance, privacy safeguards or how consumers control information generated by their devices. Those issues are not peripheral to the urban home. Once everyday appliances are connected, domestic infrastructure increasingly includes software systems whose performance and support are controlled by private companies.
### India as a test market for connected homes
India’s importance to Samsung and LG is being shaped by the combination of urbanisation, rising incomes, local manufacturing and a young consumer base. Samsung sees younger users as a major reason for the rapid growth of connected appliances, while LG is positioning its Indian manufacturing network within a global AI strategy. Together, these developments suggest that Indian cities are becoming testing grounds for how quickly AI-enabled products can be adapted to diverse household conditions.
But the evidence also points to a more uneven transition than the language of the “AI home” may imply. Connected-appliance growth is sharp within Samsung’s reported user base, yet the company’s figures do not indicate the proportion of all Indian households using such devices. Nor do they show whether adoption is concentrated in a small number of affluent urban markets or spreading across different city sizes and income groups.
The central urban question is therefore not whether AI appliances will arrive in Indian homes. They are already being sold, connected and used. The more important question is what kind of domestic infrastructure will emerge as they become more affordable: one based on durable, adaptable products that reduce routine burdens, or one that adds dependence on proprietary software and continuing upgrades.
For now, the evidence confirms a clear commercial direction. Samsung is expanding connected-appliance adoption in India, younger consumers are driving usage, and the company intends to move AI functions beyond premium products. LG’s parallel manufacturing and product strategy reinforces the competitive significance of the market. The next developments to monitor are whether lower-priced appliances achieve broad adoption, how long software support lasts, and whether the convenience promised by connected homes becomes practical for households beyond the premium segment.
