Baidu Smart Cloud inked a deal with Bear Electric Appliance Co Ltd, a maker of small home appliances based in Foshan, Guangdong province, on Thursday, the first day of the Appliance and Electronics World Expo 2026.

According to the deal, the two sides announced that they will launch an AI strategic cooperation with a scale of 100 million yuan ($14.5 million) in the next three years. Relying on Baidu AI Cloud's big model 5.0 and Baidu Smart Cloud's AI technology capabilities, they will carry out in-depth cooperation around the AI big model and smart home appliance scenarios, and jointly promote the innovation and industrial upgrading of the new generation of AI small home appliances.

As per the agreement, both parties will establish a long-term strategic partnership around "AI+Home Appliances+Intelligent Life", fully empowering products and enterprise operation systems through AI technology, and accelerating the home appliance industry's move toward the AI native era.

At the product level, both parties will focus on upgrading AI capabilities around the core categories of Bear Electric Appliance, including small household appliances such as air fryers, health pots, and rice cookers. Based on the Wenxin Yiyan big model capability, the new generation of AI home appliances will have natural voice dialogue, intelligent services, and content ecology capabilities. Through end-to-end voice interaction, low-latency voice control, and natural human-machine interaction will be achieved.

In the future, both parties will use the Wenxin Yiyan big model as the core technology base, continuously promote the large-scale application of AI technology in the field of smart home appliances, and create a new generation of AI small home appliances with understanding, decision-making, and service capabilities, so that home appliances can evolve from functional devices to home intelligent life partners, and jointly promote the innovative development of the AI home appliance industry, the two parties said.