Ecovacs and Alibaba Cloud Forge AI Partnership for Next-Gen Robotics

September 29, 2025 - In a significant move for the smart home industry, Ecovacs Robotics has entered into a comprehensive AI partnership with Alibaba Cloud. The collaboration aims to integrate advanced artificial intelligence capabilities into Ecovacs' robotic vacuum cleaners, marking a major step forward in embodied intelligence applications for home environments.

Strategic Collaboration Details

The partnership will see Ecovacs leveraging Alibaba Cloud's Qwen large language models to enhance voice command recognition and processing in its cleaning robots. Users will be able to issue natural language instructions directly to their devices, significantly improving operational convenience.

Ecovacs, which holds the top market share in China's robotic vacuum sector for ten consecutive years, plans to use this collaboration as a springboard into broader smart home applications. The company has announced intentions to expand into areas including smart cooking and personal care robotics by 2025.

Technical Implementation

The integration will utilize multiple versions of Qwen models (0.7B, 1.5B, and 7B) depending on application requirements:

• Smaller models for basic command recognition
• Larger models for complex dialogue scenarios
• Future exploration of visual language models (VLMs) for enhanced environmental understanding

Internally, Ecovacs will develop specialized domain models based on Qwen 3 to improve operational efficiency across its global business units serving 38 million households worldwide.

Market Context

This partnership builds on an existing relationship between the two companies dating back to 2016. For Alibaba Cloud, the collaboration represents an important application of its AI technology in consumer hardware. For Ecovacs, it provides access to cutting-edge AI capabilities without requiring complete in-house development.

The move comes as competition intensifies in the global smart home market, with consumers increasingly expecting seamless voice control and intelligent automation from their devices.

Key Points:

• Voice Control Upgrade: Qwen integration enables natural language commands for robotic vacuums
• Market Expansion: Ecovacs plans broader smart home applications beyond cleaning
• Technical Depth: Multiple model sizes deployed based on complexity requirements
• Visual Intelligence: Joint exploration of VLMs could enable new functionality
• Global Impact: Enhances products available across Ecovacs' international markets