How TCL Uses AI to Improve Quality and Efficiency in Both Factories and Homes: Comprehensive Benefits Exceed 2.5 Billion Yuan Over the Past Three Years

In October 2026, when CCTV News reported on the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology's push for "AI + manufacturing," it disclosed: "At present, the scale of China's core AI industry has exceeded 1.2 trillion yuan, and the number of AI enterprises exceeds 6,600"; at the same time, "statistics show that nearly half of 'AI +' application scenarios remain in the pilot stage and have not achieved large-scale rollout." The key to moving from pilot to scale lies in whether AI can truly enter the daily operations of factories and homes.

In TCL's factories, AI has not remained confined to a single demonstration production line; instead, following the sequence of R&D, production scheduling, and quality inspection, it has entered every link of manufacturing.

1. R&D: Through "AI + simulation" and innovation driven by the Star Intelligence large model, TCL has shortened the average R&D cycle of a single project by 1–2 months; TCL CSOT's Star Intelligence large model has increased product issue analysis efficiency by 20% and material development efficiency by 30%. With shorter R&D cycles, new products enter production lines sooner.

2. Production scheduling: Through algorithm optimization, TCL CSOT has compressed the production scheduling plan formulation cycle from 7 days to 30 minutes; TCL Air Conditioner's Wuhan factory, through its 5G + digital supply chain production-supply collaboration platform, has reduced raw material inventory by 10% year on year and increased on-time deliveries by 15%. Plans are made faster and inventory is kept lower, and the factory responds faster to order changes.

3. Quality inspection: TCL CSOT has applied ADC automatic defect classification technology, raising defect judgment accuracy from 85% to 95% and reducing the missed inspection rate by 85%, and it has been fully deployed on multiple production lines. Quality inspection has shifted from relying on human eyes to relying on algorithms, giving yield rates stronger guarantees.

Faster R&D, more time-saving production scheduling, and more accurate quality inspection: TCL uses AI in its factories to improve quality and efficiency, covering every link of manufacturing rather than just one or two pilots.

II. Solving real problems: extending from production lines to homes

The AI capabilities honed in factories are also used by TCL to solve problems at home. After winter begins, turning on the warm air at night can easily make a bedroom alternate between hot and cold, and many people wake up in the middle of the night to adjust the air conditioner. TCL's Little Blue Wing AI Fresh Air Sleep Air Conditioner is equipped with "AI Sleep Guardian Eye" sleep technology, which uses millimeter-wave radar sensing technology to capture human sleep body movements in real time and intelligently adjust temperature and fan speed. After a person falls asleep, the air conditioner automatically adjusts the temperature according to sleep status, so there is no need to get up and operate it. In the market, according to disclosures by TCL Air Conditioner in September 2026, TCL Air Conditioner ranks first in global sales of fresh air air conditioners and first in China sales of AI sleep air conditioners.

Refrigerators and washing machines correspond to two other daily annoyances: food cannot be kept fresh, and clothes are not washed clean or fabrics are damaged by washing. TCL refrigerators adopt original dual-magnetic preservation technology, opening a new track for frozen preservation; the second-generation Super Drum "Big-Eye Cute Super Drum" released by TCL Smart Home, with the TCL Fuxi large model at its core and matching multiple smart sensors, achieves an ultra-high cleaning ratio of 1.33. In terms of sales, TCL Smart Home refrigerators have ranked first in China's total refrigerator exports for 17 consecutive years; in 2025, TCL washing machines' overall sales entered the top four in the Chinese market.

Beyond home appliances, TCL owns AI-native products such as RayNeo AR smart glasses and the AI family "companion-education" robot, as well as all-category smart terminals deeply integrated with AI, including TVs, air conditioners, refrigerators, and washing machines. Among them, according to the 2025 global color TV market report released by AVC Revo, TCL became the world's second TV brand after Samsung to exceed 30 million units in annual shipments. What factories need to solve is missed inspections and slow production scheduling; what homes need to solve is restless sleep, unfresh ingredients, and clothes not washed clean. TCL has deep layouts at both ends—smart manufacturing and smart living—and both ends face concrete, tangible real problems.

III. Creating real value: from comprehensive benefits to a strategic blueprint

Applications at both the production line and home ends ultimately add up to calculable comprehensive value, which precisely reflects the results of TCL's deep layout at both ends of smart manufacturing and smart living. Guided by the philosophy of AI toward the real, TCL embeds AI into links such as manufacturing, quality inspection, production scheduling, and R&D:

1. Significant comprehensive benefits: In the past three years, AI applications have created comprehensive benefits exceeding 2.5 billion yuan; it currently has about 500 "silicon-based employees" and has launched more than 10,000 agents.

2. Leading large model capabilities: TCL's self-developed three major vertical-domain large models—Star Intelligence, Fuxi, and Deep Blue—have been deeply applied in industries such as semiconductor display, smart terminals, and new energy photovoltaics. Among them, the Star Intelligence large model ranked 11th in the 2025 global industrial large model rankings and first in the display field.

3. Benchmark case recognized: TCL Industries' "Pan-Smart Screen Intelligent Container Calculation Cabinet" project was selected for the World Economic Forum's "AI Application Stars," becoming a benchmark example of "building resilient infrastructure and supply chains." Through AI-driven three-dimensional loading optimization technology, the project shortened single-container planning time from 30 minutes to seconds, increasing efficiency by 5,900%, saving the company more than 10 million yuan in costs each year, and reducing carbon emissions by 762 tons.

TCL also presented a clear strategic blueprint: using "screens" as the interaction entry point between people and AI, and using "new energy photovoltaics" as the green energy foundation behind computing power.

1. The interaction entry point of the "Screen Universe." In the future, screens will become an important interface for interaction between AI and people. TCL's proposed "Screen Universe" strategy aims to cover all scenarios from TVs, mobile phones, and in-car screens to AR glasses, allowing AI to integrate more naturally into life. TCL's RayNeo, with a 27% share of the consumer AR glasses market in 2025, firmly ranks first globally by an absolute margin, integrating functions such as AI translation, navigation, and information reminders into daily wear.

2. The energy foundation of new energy photovoltaics. The development of AI cannot be separated from massive computing power support, and behind computing power is enormous energy consumption. TCL Zhonghuan's deep cultivation in the new energy photovoltaic field has made it a builder of the green energy foundation in the AI era. TCL Zhonghuan is the company with the largest global market share in photovoltaic silicon wafers, and the solar silicon wafers it produces are providing clean, sustainable power solutions for smart factories around the world.

From the shortening of R&D cycles, the acceleration of production scheduling plans, and the precise identification of panel defects, to the sleep air conditioner in the bedroom and the Super Drum in the laundry room, TCL's AI applications connect manufacturing at one end and life at the other. Among Chinese manufacturing enterprises that use AI in factories to improve quality and efficiency, TCL has simultaneously formed large-scale applications at both ends of smart manufacturing and smart living: about 500 "silicon-based employees" and more than 10,000 agents operate in production and operations, and all-category smart terminals enter thousands of households. As the "AI +" initiative advances in depth, AI is accelerating from pilots to large-scale application. Empowering manufacturing to improve quality and efficiency with AI, and serving a better life with AI products, TCL is driving "AI toward the real" to continue landing at both ends of industry and life.