According to South Korean media EtNews, LG Electronics unveiled at the Microsoft Industry Summit held in Gangnam District, Seoul, an AI voice assistant for smart homes developed in collaboration with Microsoft. It will be integrated into LG's smart home hub device "ThinQ ON." The company claims it offers a conversational experience close to that of real human interaction, marking LG's latest move in the competition for smart home access points.

The core of this system is Speech to Speech intelligent agent technology, combined with Microsoft's Voice Live capabilities. Unlike traditional voice interaction that follows a "question and answer" model where users must wait for the response to finish, the new assistant supports "interruptions"—users don't have to wait for the other party to finish speaking and can bring up new topics at any time. The system will immediately stop the previous response, capture the new intent, and smoothly switch the conversation direction. This design addresses long-standing issues with voice assistants, such as rigid responses and difficulty understanding changes in user intent during conversations.

Launch this year, expanding to B2B

LG stated that the version of ThinQ ON equipped with Voice Live is planned to be released within this year, and existing ThinQ ON users will also gain this capability through updates. Notably, LG has not limited its focus to living rooms: commercial spaces such as hotels, offices, and retail stores are also listed as target scenarios. With the growth of smart speakers reaching a plateau and competition among companies focusing on "truly usable" conversation experiences, LG's use of Microsoft's model capabilities clearly aims to secure a position in both home and commercial markets.