• The Philips Hue app is getting a new generative AI assistant
• Tell it what mood you want to create, and it’ll make a custom scene
• The AI smart lighting assistant is due to launch later this year

Signify, the company behind Philips Hue smart lights, has announced that it’s adding a new generative AI assistant to the Hue app, which will create “personalized lighting scenes based on mood, occasion or style”.

The Philips Hue app already lets you make custom lighting scenes by selecting colors manually or using a photo, but the new assistant will simplify the process by letting you type ideas or give voice commands using natural language.

Signify isn’t among the hundreds of companies exhibiting its latest innovations at CES 2025 in Las Vegas this week, so we don’t know when we’ll get to see the new AI assistant in action, but it’s due to make its official debut later this year.

From the scant details we have so far, it sounds similar to the AI-powered smart lighting tool introduced by Philips Hue rival Lepro last year, which also uses voice commands to create custom themes to suit your mood. Tell the Lepro app your mood or what you’re doing, and it will create a lighting scheme automatically without the need to hand-pick colors for your lights.

Even smarter lights

The AI assistant comes hot on the heels of another big app upgrade back in October, which added an augmented reality tool that lets you see how various Philips Hue smart lights would look in your home, complete with different effects and colors.

The AR tool uses 3D mapping rather than superimposing images of lamps and light bulbs over the top of a video of your room, which means it’s currently only available for the iPhone Pro and iPad Pro with LIDAR. Hopefully the AI assistant have such hardware limitations, and will be available much more widely when it launches.

“This marks a new era in smart lighting,” said John Smith, Business Leader, Philips Hue at Signify. “Our AI assistant is just the beginning of a smarter, more intuitive home experience.”

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