Samsung held its 2026 edition of The Brief event yesterday, which was held in Hanoi, Vietnam. During the event, the company showcased its catalogue of digital appliances for both businesses and consumers. As you’d expect, these are AI-powered, with the home appliances being part of the larger Bespoke AI family of products and making use of the SmartThings platform. This includes products that have already been launched in the local market, with a preview of something that’s only launching early 2027.
Refrigerators
Starting off with its refrigerators, Samsung showed off the Bespoke AI Family Hub 4-Door French Door Refrigerator, as well as the Bespoke AI Side-by-Side Refrigerator. If the latter sounds familiar, that’s because it was launched back in April of last year. The former is not exactly new either. In fact, it’s slightly older, launching back in 2024, even though it never made its way to our shores.
That being said, the fridges themselves are not quite the highlight being shown off at the event. Instead, it’s the recent update that they’ve gotten. This allows them – or rather, their improved AI Vision – to recognise more food items than before, and with greater accuracy. As a result, this also improves SmartThings Food which recommends recipes based on what it knows is in the fridge. Another new element is the FoodNote widget that suggests a shopping list to you based on frequently consumed items, which itself is derived from your consumption patterns.
It’s worth pointing out that the update itself rolled out last month, but only to select models. Also, the demo during the event showed that the features mentioned above don’t really work together with the new, LLM-powered Bixby, limiting its agentic AI potential. But either way, like its phones, Samsung is promising up to seven years of software updates.
Air Conditioners
Like its fridges, Samsung’s air conditioners – or rather the whole Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) category – also benefits from AI-driven features and the SmartThings platform. The company also attributes the acquisition of Swedish company FlaktGroup to its entry into the industrial space.
Regardless of market though, Samsung attributes its WindFree tech as being central to its HVAC line-up. If you’re unfamiliar, this is what the company says allows its air conditioners to disperse air quietly, slowly and evenly across rooms without drying out your skin, as well as letting it consume less energy during operation. The company points to its Bespoke AI WindFree Pro Air Conditioner as an example of a model that makes use of this tech, in addition to AI-powered features like AI Motion Wind to adapt airflow to user preferences.
But more importantly, Samsung also teased an upcoming air conditioner that’s only launching in 2027. Unfortunately, the unit we saw was just a mock-up of the real deal, and the only feature the company has shared about it is that it “also expands access to AI and smart features such as AI Energy Mode”. It doesn’t even have a name yet, so there’s a lot that the company is keeping under wraps, until its eventual launch next year.
