Smart home tech is reaching new heights. Not long ago, devices like smart thermostats and AI assistants were a niche technology. But they’ve become a fixture in homes across the world. As this trend continues to climb, these devices are becoming smarter than ever.
Experts predict there will be 482.8 million smart homes by 2025. Home IoT devices aren’t just increasing in number, either. They’re featuring a broader range of capabilities and services, pushing the limits of what’s possible for consumer smart tech.
When many manufacturers call a device smart today, they typically mean it can connect to the internet. Now, that’s starting to change, with more home IoT appliances including AI or AI-adjacent features. Smart homes are becoming truly smart.
True Automation
As appliances become smarter, they can work more autonomously. Many smart home devices today still require a considerable amount of human control. Newer gadgets feature more autonomy, a change that first occurred in the most familiar of these devices: smart speakers.
Amazon recently updated Alexa’s Hunches feature, which lets Alexa automatically perform actions based on user habits. For example, if you usually turn off your lights around 9 p.m., Alexa may start switching them off then without your input.
More automation can make life easier, and it also helps reduce costs. For example, turning the thermostat down when you’re out of the house can save up to 10% on heating costs annually. Autonomous thermostats sense when no one’s home and make these adjustments automatically while also taking into account heating and cooling considerations like whether or not you’re at home and if you have pets at home.
At-Home Machine Learning
Smart home appliances are also starting to showcase more machine learning features. This learning, in turn, enables and improves further automation, as seen in the recent Alexa Hunches update. While machine learning has been standard in smart speakers for a while, it’s starting to break into other devices too.
Haier recently unveiled a smart fridge that uses machine learning to improve food preservation and recommend recipes. The refrigerator can detect different types of food and adjust its temperature and suggest optimal placement to preserve freshness for longer. Similarly, it can recommend recipes for users to make based on available ingredients and their freshness.
Many smart power strips today switch off other devices to save energy, and machine learning can take these savings further. These appliances could develop schedules based on user behavior or changes in energy consumption. They could then turn things on and off to balance convenience and shifting power usage automatically.
Hyper-Personalization
With more machine learning and automation comes higher degrees of personalization. This has always been a significant selling point for IoT gadgets, and it’s reaching new levels. Some smart home devices coming to markets today can even personalize actions without any user input.
At CES 2020, Panasonic introduced an activity-sensing system that adjusts room temperatures based on biometric data. Sensors detect occupancy, movement, and even body temperature to set the most comfortable temperature for a given moment. This system lets your air conditioning personalize settings not just to your general preferences but also your needs at a specific point in time.
At the same conference, Haier showed a smart kitchen concept that can adjust appliance height to whoever’s cooking. Hyper-personalized features like this will become increasingly common over the next few years, so no two smart homes will be the same. This personalization will also help push IoT devices into new, more niche markets.
Homes Are Getting Smarter
This level of automation, personalization, and artificial intelligence was once the exclusive domain of enterprise-grade technologies. As the IoT’s underlying technology becomes more advanced and affordable, these features have made their way into the home.
Smart homes have already seen remarkable adoption numbers. Now that they’re becoming truly smart, this trend could skyrocket. Users will flock to these technologies for their sustainability, convenience, and cost-effectiveness.
