  Light fidelity (LiFi), which is based on visible light communications (VLC),
is celebrated as a cutting-edge technological paradigm that is envisioned to be
an indispensable part of 6G systems. Nonetheless, LiFi performance is subject
to efficiently overcoming the line-of-sight blockage, whose adverse effect on
wireless reception reliability becomes even more pronounced in highly dynamic
environments, such as vehicular application scenarios. Meanwhile,
reconfigurable intelligent surfaces (RIS) emerged recently as a revolutionary
concept that transfers the physical propagation environment into a fully
controllable and customisable space in a low-cost low-power fashion. We
anticipate that the integration of RIS in LiFi-enabled networks will not only
support blockage mitigation but will also provision complex interactions among
network entities, and is hence manifested as a promising platform that enables
a plethora of technological trends and new applications. In this article, for
the first time in the open literature, we set the scene for a holistic overview
of RIS-assisted LiFi systems. Specifically, we explore the underlying RIS
architecture from the perspective of physics and present a forward-looking
vision that outlines potential operational elements supported by RIS-enabled
transceivers and RIS-enabled environments. Finally, we highlight major
associated challenges and offer a look ahead toward promising future
directions.
