{"id":31403,"date":"2024-08-29T18:28:34","date_gmt":"2024-08-30T01:28:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blinkbargain.com\/blog\/lg-transforming-into-a-smart-life-solution-company-2024-checkpoint\/"},"modified":"2024-08-29T18:28:34","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T01:28:34","slug":"lg-transforming-into-a-smart-life-solution-company-2024-checkpoint","status":"publish","type":"blog","link":"https:\/\/blinkbargain.com\/blog\/lg-transforming-into-a-smart-life-solution-company-2024-checkpoint\/","title":{"rendered":"LG Transforming into a Smart Life Solution Company: 2024 Checkpoint"},"content":{"rendered":"

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For the past year or so, LG Electronics has been working on transforming itself \u201cInto a Smart Life Solution Company\u201d under the leadership of its CEO, William Cho, who started his current role in 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The term \u201cSmart Life Solution Company\u201d might sound nebulous at first but it contrasts with the recent past in which LG was one of the best at building individual appliances and other products but wasn\u2019t yet able to create a network or platform effect that would magnify the customers\u2019 user experience and branding power which would induce the growth the company wants.<\/p>\n

The idea is to use LG\u2019s extensive relationship with millions of customers who use hundreds of millions of devices to create better experiences and products at work, at home, or even inside vehicles. This may sound like an obvious thing to do, but it is hard for any company to achieve it at this scale. There are very successful platforms for computers or mobile devices, but they don\u2019t extend to vehicles, buildings, and other infrastructures.<\/p>\n

“SMART LIFE SOLUTION COMPANY”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

This transformation is also a new mindset at LG. Many industry insiders have long recognized that the company was historically engineering-driven, which is why so many of its technologies were ground-breaking. However, one could argue that its brand power could (should) have been higher if the previous leadership had a more holistic approach.<\/p>\n

Such branding and recognition are particularly important in product segments with a low refresh rate, like home appliances, televisions, air conditioning, etc. If one is going to make an \u201cinvestment\u201d in one every 7-10 years, buying from a perceived trustworthy brand and platform is a big part of the equation, perhaps even more so than high technical merits.<\/p>\n

Better branding is very important, but it isn\u2019t the endgame. By expending in many aspects of life (home, work, vehicles), LG intends to achieve a \u201cTriple 7\u201d plan, which consists in 7% cumulative average growth rate, 7% operating profit, and a 7x increase in enterprise value. This is a very ambitious goal.<\/p>\n

I was recently invited to LG Korea to meet with their leadership and see\/experience some of the progress of this endeavor. This included meeting key decision-makers in various fields, such as automotive, HVAC systems (home\/work), and artificial intelligence (AI).<\/p>\n

Home of the Future<\/h2>\n

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We visited a \u201cHome of the Future,\u201d a realistic reproduction of a typical middle-class or upper-middle-class Korean apartment inside the LG Sciencepark<\/a> in Gangseo-gu. LG Engineers use it to simulate real-world conditions or invite various groups in for usability testing or demonstration.<\/p>\n

Inside, we were shown the latest LG products in action, emphasizing how smart or extremely convenient various home appliances were. For instance, some could recognize a family member\u2019s voice and, from there, infer their height. The upper controls on a dual-stack washer\/dryer are too high for one family member, so the machine would automatically re-route the dryer controls onto the washer at the bottom. Various software-enabled features of LG\u2019s ThinQ UP appliances were upgraded over the air, and LG is emphasizing after-sale support for their products, which is important to end users.<\/p>\n

There were all kinds of machine-learning applications from other appliances in which they learn about your habits, etc. It was standard for our day and age, but we could see where LG was going with it.<\/p>\n

Affectionate (artificial) intelligence<\/h2>\n

We met with Han Eun-jung, vice president of LG\u2019s AI Lab. No secrets were revealed, but it is obvious that LG is pursuing all the solutions that embedding models and large-language models (LLMs) offer, going from augmented-retrieval GenAI (RAG) to AI user agents that act on your behalf, saving you time. You can expect to see more \u201cAI\u201d looking applications that will feel much smarter than today\u2019s machine-learning ones.<\/p>\n

LG disclosed interesting numbers, such as its 700 billion hours of data usage across 700 million LG devices to train models. This is certainly a data treasure trove few companies can match in the industries LG is aiming for.<\/p>\n

The company started working on this type of technology for more than a decade and even has dedicated chips originally introduced to run AI inference for high-throughput image processing.<\/p>\n

“700 BILLION HOURS OF DATA USAGE ACROSS 700 MILLION LG DEVICES”<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

LG also mentioned that some of its models are proprietary, which makes sense since potential changes shouldn\u2019t hinder such deployment at scale in terms of use or other legal issues from third-party models. LG also has a lot of proprietary data to train its models, which could be a competitive advantage in certain products.<\/p>\n

LG\u2019s overall AI effort aims to deliver \u201cAffectionate Intelligence,\u201d which I interpret as AI delivering real value that is perceptible and loved by users. Today, the electronics industry still has many \u201cAI gimmicks,\u201d but with LLMs and AI user agents, there\u2019s great potential to explore.<\/p>\n

A simple example I can think of is that no one should know what the various modes and knobs on a washing machine are. Ideally, the machine should be able to observe the laundry load and figure out the settings. Alternatively, the user can verbally request something specific, and that\u2019s it. We\u2019re not too far from this from a purely technical standpoint.<\/p>\n

Vehicles & Mobility<\/h2>\n

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At the worldwide LG headquarters, we had an insightful discussion with Valentin Janiaut, a Task Leader at LG Vehicle Component Solutions<\/a>. For LG, vehicles are quickly becoming a \u201cliving space on wheels\u201d that will transport people and serve as a home-like space in many situations. Therefore, every technology must be applied to make that space as comfortable and agreeable as possible.<\/p>\n

Enter LG AlphaWare (\u03b1Ware), LG\u2019s software-defined vehicles software suite, composed of five core solutions recently presented at AutoTech: Detroit:<\/p>\n