IFA 2025: What to expect from the smart home

By Jon Bitner Published August 29, 2025

IFA Berlin 2025 is almost here, and as one of the biggest home and consumer tech events in the world, it never fails to impress. Last year at IFA 2024, we saw the Roborock Qrevo Curv, the ridiculous Yarbo Yard Robot, the bold new Nanoleaf Blocks, and the innovative Balcony Farm that aims to bring gardens to urban environments. As for IFA 2025? We’re expecting it to be another remarkable showing for the smart home. We’ll be on the ground in Berlin exploring everything it has to offer starting on September 5, but here’s a quick look at what we’re hoping to see when the event kicks off.

You just can’t escape AI these days. Love it or hate it, AI has been pretty helpful in the smart home. For example, Arlo recently revealed a new lineup of security cameras — and every single one supports Arlo Intelligence. This lets the devices push smart alerts to your phone or set up various triggers for different parts of your property, making it easier than ever to see exactly what’s happening while you’re away. At IFA 2025, we’re expecting AI to be everywhere. Most devices already use some form of AI, but expect to see bold enhancements this September that make smart devices more useful than ever before.

Along with AI integrations, expect plenty of support for Matter, Amazon Alexa, and Google Home.

A few months ago, Roborock launched a robot vacuum that could pick up objects with a robotic arm. It wasn’t perfect, but it’s the type of innovation and risk-taking that slowly pushes the industry forward. And at IFA 2025, we’re looking for robot vacuums to evolve in new and exciting ways. Last year at IFA we saw a handful of robot vacuums that could climb over thresholds — and while we probably won’t see robots that can climb actual stairs yet, I’m hoping for bold new ideas that shake up the industry.

Half the fun of IFA is finding those offbeat gadgets that often get the spotlight stolen by larger brands. For me last year, that was Balcony Farm, which displayed a tiny garden built to slot inside your window frame. We also saw a few cool smart composters and a handful of gadgets that blurred the lines between smart home, health, and fitness. The IFA show floor is massive — and scouring every corner to find these hidden gems is bound to consume a bunch of our time.

Robot vacuums are arguably the most popular robots on the planet. But robot lawn mowers are starting to go mainstream, too — and we’re expecting IFA 2025 to reveal robots built to handle surfaces other than carpet and hard floors. IFA 2024 gave us the modular Yarbo Yard Robot, which could mow your lawn, plow snow off your driveway, blow leaves away in the fall, and tow up to 3,500 pounds. We also saw a few robots built to climb around windows like Spider-Man, clearing dirt and debris as they went.

This year, we’d love to see the trend continue, with robots designed to handle other aspects of daily maintenance and cleaning. After all, the end-goal of robots and automation is to free up our chore list, leaving us more time to spend on things we actually enjoy.