LG Electronics Brings Middle East's First B2B AI Home to Saudi Arabia, Linking Power and Security Management
IT DAILY ·
✦ AI Summary
LG Electronics is expanding the scope of AI Home in Saudi Arabia to building management.
It announced that it will open the Middle East's first B2B-only AI Home experience space at a Riyadh brand shop on the 14th.
LG Electronics plans to expand B2B sales to real estate developers and hospitality operators, and aims to win customers in Jeddah, Dammam, and other cities within the year.
LG Electronics is expanding the scope of AI Home in Saudi Arabia beyond controlling appliances and IoT devices to include building management. Last year, the company sought to supply cooling and AI Home solutions for local smart city and high-end residential complex development projects.
In line with this trend, LG Electronics is expanding B2B sales to real estate developers and hospitality operators. To this end, it announced on the 14th that it will open the Middle East's first B2B-dedicated AI Home experience space at a brand shop in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
The experience space is set up in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and is organized into a living room, kitchen, bedroom, and bathroom to recreate a local premium residential environment. Built-in appliances such as an oven, hood, and refrigerator are on display.
Visitors can experience an environment in which appliances and IoT devices are connected around ThinQ ON, LG Electronics' AI Home hub, along with built-in appliances and building management solutions. The hands-on offerings include the AI Home hub "ThinQ ON," built-in appliances, and building management solutions.
ThinQ ON applies generative AI-based voice recognition, allowing users to control connected devices with natural-language commands. ThinQ ON also links with the smart home platform Homey Pro. Through the Homey Pro integration, it can connect multiple IoT devices sold in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.
At this experience space, the company will demonstrate individual appliance control and building management functions at the same time. LG Electronics is working with energy management company Schneider Electric and access and security company ASSA ABLOY to link appliances, HVAC, power management, and security into a single system. Based on this, it will adopt a turnkey approach that bundles related equipment and management functions for local real estate developers and hospitality operators.
LG Electronics is pushing to expand its residential and building management businesses in Saudi Arabia, and behind that effort are large-scale local development projects. Last year, LG Electronics signed an MOU to supply cooling solutions to a Net Zero AI data center for a smart city development project led by the Saudi government. It also plans to supply AI Home and smart solutions to a high-end residential complex development project.
Saudi Arabia is one of the markets LG Electronics classifies as a key Global South market. LG Electronics' major Global South markets are India, Brazil, and Saudi Arabia. Combined revenue from the three countries last year was about KRW 6.2 trillion, and combined revenue from the three countries rose more than 20% from 2023. The revenue growth rate in the three countries more than doubled LG Electronics' overall revenue growth rate during the same period.
The local smart home market is expanding in Saudi Arabia. Grand View Research forecast that the size of Saudi Arabia's smart home market will grow from about USD 2.036 billion (about KRW 2.7 trillion) in 2024 to about USD 8.695 billion (about KRW 11.7 trillion) in 2030. The projected compound annual growth rate for the Saudi smart home market from 2025 to 2030 is 27.3%.
LG Electronics entered the Saudi market in 1995 by signing an air conditioner business partnership with local distributor Shaker. It then established a joint venture in 2006. More recently, it has been taking part in government-led development projects and, based on that, is expanding its B2B and B2G businesses.
LG Electronics will operate the Riyadh experience space as a B2B showroom, introducing AI Home and building management systems to local construction companies, real estate developers, and hospitality operators. LG Electronics plans to pursue B2B customers in Jeddah, Dammam, and other major Saudi cities within the year.
At the same time, LG Electronics is differentiating its AI Home business approach according to regional housing types and customers. In Korea, it has applied related solutions to more than 1 million homes through collaboration with construction companies, and in North America it is supplying LG ThinQ Pro to building managers.
In Europe, it operates a Homey-based home energy management system (HEMS). Kim Seong-jae, executive vice president and head of LG Electronics' HS Overseas Sales Group, said the company plans to use the Riyadh AI Home experience space as a starting point to establish itself as a B2B partner in local infrastructure construction projects in the Middle East by offering tailored solutions.
Source: IT DAILY · Kim Byeong-ju
Original: https://www.itdaily.kr/news/articleView.html?idxno=241586
References
This article was produced with the help of an automated content generation algorithm.
Source: IT DAILY
View originalThis article was summarized and organized by BizCrush based on the original article from IT DAILY. For exact quotations and full details, please refer to the original article.