Lighting company Lepro pulled up to IFA (Innovation for All) 2025 with a fun new trick I've haven't seen before in home lighting: Centerpiece lights with microphones equipped to hear voice commands and an LLM-style AI to interpret them.
Lepro calls this new line the AI Lighting Pro series. It includes an ultra-stylish tabletop lamp designed like a planetary orbit model, an LED strip light, a neon rope light and a thin floor lamp. One thing they all have in common -- a mic listening for the wake word "Hey Lepro" and an AI design assistant waiting to change the lights at your command.
What makes Lepro's voice assistant different?
Lepro's setup may sound very familiar to those who already use a voice assistant like Google or Alexa to control their smart lighting or arrange home scenes. However, Lepro's approach differs in a few special ways.
First, these lights have mics installed directly on them, which means you're speaking directly to the lights instead of to a voice assistant in your phone or smart speaker. If you don't already have a smart speaker, that may sound sort of weird, but voice assistants generally don't listen all the time, only when activated by their wake word to pay attention. And in this case, you don't need any extra hub for your voice controls, just the lights themselves.
Lepro's AI design assistant is also a bit different from the typical voice assistant. Lepro says that it trained the AI on color and design content to help it interpret scenarios and choose the best colors. That means that a user could say something like, "I'm having a birthday party" or "I'm setting a romantic dinner" or simply "I'm in the mood to relax" and the light will adjust without you needing to come up with specific colors yourself.
Lepro's software also includes other tricks, such as the ability to create your own DIY scenes and LightBeats music syncing. That's a pretty complete package, especially when you include the onboard mics and voice command options.
Lepro plans on releasing its AI Lighting Pro series for sale sometime this year, but there's no word on pricing yet. I'll see if I can get a model to talk about my feelings with and see what colors it offers me in return.Â