In today’s rapidly evolving technological landscape, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is permeating every corner of our lives at an unprecedented pace. Recently, Ecovacs and Alibaba Cloud have reached a significant comprehensive AI strategic cooperation, marking a deep integration between these two tech giants in the smart home sector. According to news on September 28th, Ecovacs’ floor cleaning robots have successfully integrated with Alibaba Cloud’s Tongyi Qianwen, enabling users to issue cleaning commands directly via voice, opening a new chapter in home cleaning.
The Rise and Market Position of Ecovacs
As a company deeply rooted in the home service robotics field, Ecovacs has been in operation for 27 years. With the world’s only complete product line and industrial chain for home service robots, Ecovacs holds an unshakable position in the intelligent cleaning market. Market data shows that Ecovacs’ floor cleaning robots have maintained the top market share in China for ten consecutive years, and overseas revenue accounts for over 42% of its total robot business revenue. Currently, its products cover numerous countries and regions including the US, Europe, Japan, South Korea, Australia, and Southeast Asia, serving 38 million household users globally.
Strategic Cooperation with Alibaba Cloud
This cooperation with Alibaba Cloud is not merely a simple technical integration for Ecovacs, but a comprehensive strategic move. Both parties will jointly explore research and development in areas such as embodied AI, AI computing power, on-device model deployment, and Vision-Language Models (VLM), striving to pioneer a new intelligent era in the smart home industry. Ecovacs plans to build vertical-specific large models and a unified Agent platform based on Tongyi Qianwen, aiming to enhance work efficiency within the group.
In this collaboration, Ecovacs floor cleaning robots will utilize various models of Tongyi Qianwen, such as the 0.7B, 1.5B, and 7B versions, for intent recognition. This means users can issue cleaning commands more naturally when interacting with the robot, which will quickly recognize and execute them. Furthermore, in scenarios involving complex queries or casual conversation, Ecovacs will also leverage larger-scale Qianwen models to handle multi-turn dialogues and understand more complex needs.
Future Outlook for Smart Homes
With the proliferation of smart homes, user demands for home cleaning are continuously rising. Ecovacs not only focuses on floor cleaning robots as its flagship product but also plans to expand into various areas such as smart home cleaning, cooking, and personal care. It is projected that by 2025, Ecovacs will fully enter the field of embodied AI, further enhancing its competitiveness in the smart home market.
Additionally, according to the latest news, Ecovacs will integrate corporate knowledge within internal scenarios to develop vertical-specific professional models and Agents based on Tongyi Qianwen 3. This initiative will significantly improve Ecovacs’ internal collaboration efficiency, laying a solid foundation for future development.
The cooperation between Ecovacs and Alibaba Cloud is not just a technical merger but also represents profound consideration and strategic planning for the future smart home market. With the continuous advancement of AI technology, we have reason to believe that future home life will become more intelligent and convenient. In this transformation, Ecovacs’ floor cleaning robots will continue to lead the industry trend, making home cleaning easier and more enjoyable
