technology
Nanoleaf Expands into Embodied AI, Robotics and Red Light Therapy While Continuing Smart Lighting Development
CEO Gimmy Chu announced at least three new embodied AI products launching this year, including an AI-powered toy related to early childhood development, a desk companion and a robotic microcontroller. The company, best known for modular RGB lighting panels, also plans four new red light therapy devices with heating and massage functions.
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Nanoleaf teased a trio of new products focused on embodied AI as the company shifts strategy beyond its core smart lighting business. CEO and cofounder Gimmy Chu said the smart home is getting kind of boring, prompting a brand evolution centered on wellness, robotics and AI. The company has launched just a handful of smart lighting products in the last two years while it pursues this pivot.
Nanoleaf is best known for its customizable, interactive RGB lighting ecosystem, including modular lighting panels whose software mirrors lights to what is on a computer or television screen. It was an early adopter of Thread and Matter. Nanoleaf’s smart bulb was one of the first Thread products to work with Apple’s HomePod Mini when it launched in 2020.
Chu said open standards like Matter are leading to the commodification of smart lighting. Ikea sells full-color smart lightbulbs for around $10 that work with every platform. Matter launched nearly four years ago.
Chu sees generative AI as the next wave of innovation for Nanoleaf. He said the company will focus on embodied AI, where technology exists in and interacts with the real world. “It’s putting intelligence into hardware that actually does something useful,” Chu said, not just putting ChatGPT in speakers.
The three embodied AI products include an AI-powered toy, a desk companion and a robotic microcontroller. One of them is related to early childhood development. Chu said Nanoleaf has at least three products launching this year around embodied AI.
He said robotics will be a big part of Nanoleaf’s future but it will take a while to get there. The Verge reported that images shared by the company show teasers of what its move into AI and robotics will look like. In wellness, Nanoleaf launched a red light therapy mask in 2025.
