Five Ways AI Automates Smart Homes

• AI Automates Life at Home •

Generative AI tools go way beyond video captions and answering questions at your leisure. Their reach and power could change how you control devices around the house, and what they can do for you. There’s been an explosion in the number of Artificial Intelligence (AI) tools following last year’s launch of ChatGPT. Now, chatbots dominate the media limelight, AI projects number in the hundreds of thousands, Microsoft and Google have joined OpenAI as big names pursuing AI initiatives, and even TikTok, Adobe, and Shopify are incorporating generative AI into their systems. Smart home features make your household more efficient, innovative, and resourceful. AI is leveling up the possibilities.

The Impact of AI on Smart Homes

AI’s greatest impact could grow to reach us right where we live: in our homes. Through automation, virtual assistants, and machine-learning algorithms, AI can make life at home more efficient and give you back valuable time. AI in smart homes is revolutionizing our living experience by automating devices around the house. Of course, AI technology is no newcomer to today’s smart home. Whenever you talk to your smart speaker or activate your home security system, you use a resource developed with deep learning in its stack. While voice assistants like Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant have been around for some time, new advancements are making smart home technologies more personalized and intuitive.

And though we’re a long way from the fully automated, futuristic vision of homes portrayed in “The Jetsons” cartoon show, your smart home journey can start with small steps — adding an Echo Speaker, Apple HomePod, Google Nest, or even a Samsung TV, installing a smart lightbulb or plug that you can control remotely, or using a security camera you can view on your phone.

The reach of AI in smart homes has the potential to go much deeper. Increased automation could enhance our personal lives and boost our productivity during daily activities around the house. Let’s take a look.

Benefits of Artificial Intelligence in Your Home

These benefits can extend beyond today’s smart devices, for example, into intelligently enhancing security footage in real time, especially in low-light situations, or generating routines and automation, according to learned patterns and then giving you the option to confirm these actions. There’s also the opportunity for generative AI to provide predictive maintenance on your property. This year’s 2024 Consumer Electronics Show showcased a treasure trove of generative AI smart home products, offering a glimpse into the future of living spaces:

Aqara’s Home Copilot

Earlier this year, Aqara introduced the Home Copilot, a new chatbot interface for its app, powered by Gen-AI. This feature converts real-time utility data and energy efficiency metrics into actionable insights for future cost savings. Home Copilot can analyze usage patterns and suggest customized automations, understand natural language— how a person would talk conversationally — to configure automation, and automate homes via simple voice & text instructions. It also features Aqara Insights for smart home reports and energy-saving plans, supporting natural language queries and offering proactive assistance in over 10 languages​​​​​​.

Govee AI

Govee AI technology focuses on innovative lighting solutions. Its CogniGlow AI series is known for intelligent color-matching capabilities and mood-based lighting scenes, offering an immersive and responsive smart home lighting experience. You can ask the app to create a lighting scene based on your favorite sports team, current event, or a seasonal holiday and it will automatically set appropriate colors. It can also react to a TV or computer game to light up the celebration when your team scores or you win the game.

Samsung’s AI Family Hub

Samsung’s AI Family Hub takes the smart fridge to the next level. It integrates AI to manage kitchen tasks, personalize meal calendars, and even suggest recipes based on the fridge’s contents. It also features enhanced voice recognition for hands-free control and can connect with other smart devices throughout your house via SmartThings or the new Matter standard.

Savant’s Natural Language Processing

Savant AI technology integrates with Siri, allowing you to control your smart home systems using natural language from a single hub. This integration means you can manage your entire home environment, including lighting, temperature, and entertainment systems, through simple voice commands in addition to the app and wall controls.

Smart AI Pillow & Mattress

DeRucci makes the innovative T11 Pro Smart Mattress and an advanced anti-snore pillow, destined to redefine your sleep experience during the REM stage. The T11 Pro Smart Mattress, recognized for its health and smart home capabilities, uses AI sensors to monitor and adjust to your health needs for optimal sleep. It tracks your vitals like body position, temperature, and heart rate, then integrates this data with other devices for a comprehensive smart bedroom environment. The anti-snore pillow automatically adjusts your head’s position, significantly reducing snoring. Additionally, the Intelligent Height Adjustable Pillow dynamically changes its height, enhancing neck support and overall sleep quality.

These advancements in AI-powered smart home technology are making everyday life more convenient, energy-efficient, and personalized. They simplify controls, automate routine tasks, and offer subtle suggestions and insights that improve your quality of living. As these technologies evolve, we can expect our homes to become even more intuitive and responsive to our individual preferences and habits, further enhancing our households.

AI-Driven Smart Home Automation

Automation is one of the best parts of using AI in smart homes. With AI continuously learning more about our choices and preferences, it can automate how all of the in-house systems work to make your life easier.

Smart Lighting and Energy Management

• Optimized Energy Consumption with Smart Lighting: AI-powered smart lighting gives better control and flexibility. The remote control capabilities give a new dimension to lighting design, installation, and utilization. In addition to remote control options, where you can toggle the lights from a distant location to save energy, AI can also bring self-learning networks to lighting. As a result, AI-powered homes can optimize energy consumption because the same principle applies to all smart appliances. Moreover, when connected to a renewable energy supply system like solar panels, homeowners can further achieve better energy efficiency.

Voice Activated Home Systems

• NLP-Based Smart Human Voice Assistants: Voice assistants leverage natural language processing to understand human voice commands and respond accordingly. These devices can be interlinked with the appliances and devices in the home through a common WiFi network. Thus it gives seamless and no-touch control to manage the usage of the appliances and devices in the house.
• AI-Based Intelligent Virtual Home Control: Voice assistants like Google Assistant and Alexa can become your ultimate home control correspondent. You can connect all the devices through an application and control every aspect of your home. Everything will be based on your voice commands, from unfurling the curtains to switching on the heat or cooling system to toggling the lights and opening the gates.

Advanced Access Control

• Smart Locks and Biometric Entry: Smart homes have biometric entry systems wherein, the residents’ fingerprints or face or both are used to open the doors. Then, we can have smart locks that also open with fingerprints, voice, or face. These systems have built-in security features to log every unsuccessful attempt to open the door or lock.

AI-Optimized Climate Control

• Smart Thermostats and Energy Savings: The heating and cooling systems in our houses take the major chunk of energy bills. AI-optimized climate control technology uses AI algorithms to learn your energy usage behavior and allows you to fine-tune the settings. This way, your usage of heating and cooling is reduced.

Moreover, AI senses the presence of people in the room and adjusts the settings accordingly. It can also know when a room is empty and cut off the heating or cooling supply, thereby reducing energy consumption.

Smart Home Apps to Improve Daily Life

This year’s 2024 Consumer Electronics Show (CES) unveiled new smart home products catering to the evolving needs of homeowners. These innovations impact what modern Buyers around San Diego seek in a home. Understanding and highlighting these features is key in our competitive real estate market, where the demand for smart, efficient, and secure homes in San Diego is ever-increasing.

• Whirlpool SlimTech Insulation

Whirlpool’s SlimTech Insulation marks a significant advancement in refrigerator technology. It replaces traditional polyurethane foam insulation with a highly porous powder blend vacuum sealed within the door or the sides of the fridge. This innovation also reduces wall thickness by up to 66%, allowing for more space inside the refrigerator.

• Kohler Smart Showers & Digital Toilets

Kohler revealed luxurious smart home bathroom products like updates to the Numi 2.0 smart toilet and high-end Stillness Bath. Their Anthem+ Digital Control allows for integrated control of water, light, sound and steam in the bathroom, promising a personalized sanctuary experience.

• Pawport Motorized Pet Door

Pawport is a motorized pet door cover that can be programmed via a smartphone app and pairs with a collar tag, opening the door remotely as the pet approaches. It adds security and convenience to pet owners, allowing for remote control, setting curfew times and providing pet tracking data.

• SmartWings Motorized Shades

SmartWings introduced its new product line, Nowa, marking the world’s first Matter-certified cellular window shades. The Nowa shades feature thermal insulation and noise isolation thanks to the unique honeycomb structure, which reduces heat exchange and conserves energy. You can customize these shades to fit your aesthetic and functional needs.

• Govee HD+ Lighting

Govee unveiled its next-generation lighting products including the Govee AI Sync Box Kit 2 and Neon Rope Light 2 to enhance the gaming experience. These products are Matter-compatible and integrate with Govee Home, Alexa and Google Assistant. The Neon Rope Light 2 features smoother multicolor lighting effects and a more flexible design, while the AI Sync Box Kit 2 offers dynamic light synchronization during gameplay.

• GE Smart Lighting

GE Lighting, a Savant company, launched the Cync Reveal HD+ Full Color Undercabinet Fixtures and Pucks. These lights offer exceptional clarity and millions of color options for an immersive lighting experience. They install easily as a plug-in or hardwired and are controlled via the Cync app, Alexa, Google Voice, Matter or the Savant app.

• Savant Power Storage System

Savant showcased its Power Storage System that lets you monitor and control energy consumption from the Savant app. This system can reduce energy costs during peak pricing periods and provide power for the entire home during blackouts.

• Ecoflow Portable Battery Backup

EcoFlow Delta Pro Ultra is a smart hybrid whole-house battery generator and backup system. It can draw power from multiple sources, like solar panels and the grid, and can scale up to 90kWh of battery capacity. It’s designed to keep a home’s essentials running for up to a month.

• Emporia Home Energy Management

With its Smart Home Energy Management System, Emporia is aiming to reduce energy bills and carbon footprints by 30-50%. The system automates energy use through smart plugs, EV chargers, home batteries and thermostats. Emporia’s V2X Charging Station, a car charger, can power a home using a car battery. Emporia also announced the Alpha-ESS Smart Home Battery System, which offers up to 49 kWh of energy storage. Homeowners can monitor and control these systems via the Emporia Smart Home Energy Management app.

• U-Tec Apple Key Compatibility

U-Tec unleashed its new Bolt NFC smart lock compatible with Apple HomeKit and Apple HomeKey. This lock allows effortless unlocking using Siri, the Apple Home app or a HomeKey-compatible iPhone or Apple Watch. The Bolt NFC features a keypad and integrated WiFi, allowing for multiple-user access options and easy installation. U-Tec also demonstrated the Ultraloq Bolt Fingerprint Matter, a deadbolt lock with a fingerprint reader.

• Securam

SECURAM premiered its new line of security-focused smart wall switches which are now available for purchase worldwide. These switches offer enhanced security features and customization. The lineup includes two configurations: the Wi-Fi Security Switch and the Wi-Fi Security Dimmer Switch. Both feature an integrated laser-based motion detection sensor, ambient light sensor, night light and backlit buttons.

• Lockly Visage

Lockly rolled out a smart lock that sets new standards in home security. It features advanced facial recognition technology for keyless entry, making it a groundbreaking addition to smart home security. Along with facial recognition, it offers a variety of access options, including a “HackProof” digital keypad with up to 52 access codes, advanced fingerprint sensing and RFID cards.

• Aqara U300

The Aqara U300 smart lock is a versatile indoor/outdoor locking device designed to replace standard lever or knob locks. The U300 features fingerprint security, PIN codes and wireless data transmission and is compatible with multiple voice assistants including Apple Home. This smart lock promises to enhance the smart home experience with its innovative features and compatibility with various platforms.

• Roborock

Roborock, focusing on smart vacuum and mopping solutions, announced its S8 Max Series, with models boasting trademarked designs designed to ensure complete cleanliness. The RockDock® Ultra provides automatic maintenance with hot water and heated air and mop re-washing and re-mopping capabilities. The S8 Max Series offers industry-leading suction power for an impressive vacuum job every time. The S8 MaxV Ultra includes smart features buyers didn’t know a device like this needed, like a built-in voice assistant, video calling, Matter protocol support and Reactive AI 2.0 obstacle recognition.

• Ecovacs

Ecovacs exhibited the GOAT GX-600, an automatic lawn mower. This advanced mower uses built-in cameras for boundary detection, removing the need for boundary wires. Its smart technology enables quick setup, app-based controls and automatic recharging. It also features AIVI 3D obstacle avoidance technology, ensuring efficient and safe lawn maintenance.

• Eureka

Eureka just announced their latest OmniVerse vacuum, which includes an extendable body that allows easy cleaning under furniture. The vacuum also transitions into a handheld device using QuickShift technology. The OmniVerse offers a large canister for less frequent emptying and includes anti-tangle brush technology, ideal for homes with pets.

• Narwal

Narwal brought the Freo X Ultra and Freo X Plus vacuum mops to market, offering fresh cleaning solutions. The Freo X Ultra features a U-shaped air duct for high-speed airflow and a floating brush to prevent hair tangling. It also includes triangular mops with EdgeSwing technology for effective cleaning. The Freo X Plus shares many features with the Ultra model but lacks a self-cleaning station.

• Dreame X30

Dreame revealed the X30 Ultra, a robot vacuum that promises to revolutionize home cleaning. It features an 8,300Pa Vormax™ Suction and MopExtend™ technology, allowing it to glide flexibly under furniture. The X30 Ultra is designed for hands-free maintenance and comes with an innovative Anti-Tangle TriCut Brush. This brush cuts trapped hair and then transfers it to the dust bag, ensuring smooth brush maintenance.

• Yarbo

Yarbo unveiled its modular robotic lawnmower, which can also be transformed into a snowblower. This versatility in function allows homeowners to use the same device for different seasonal yard maintenance tasks, improving convenience and efficiency.

• Mammotion

Mammotion debuted its LUBA 2 AWD robot mower series suitable for lawns up to 2.5 acres. The LUBA 2 AWD features a dual navigation system, bionic 3D vision for accurate obstacle avoidance, rain detection and the ability to mow customized designs into the lawn. It also boasts all-terrain capabilities, tackling inclines of up to 38 degrees and navigating muddier areas, setting a new standard in robotic lawn mowing.

• Weber Grills

Weber launched several innovative products including the SUMMIT smart gas grill with top-down infrared broiling and SmartControl technology for remote monitoring and control. The SLATE gas griddle collection offers a unique rust-resistant cooking surface and fast, high-heat capabilities. Also introduced was the SEARWOOD wood pellet grill, featuring DirectFlame heat distribution and temperature control for a versatile smoking-to-searing experience.

• Reolink

Reolink showcased its dual-lens camera lineup including the groundbreaking Duo 3 PoE 16 MP Camera. This camera integrates two high-resolution lenses to create a 180-degree panoramic view with minimal distortion. Reolink also announced the TrackMix Series with hybrid dual-lens technology and the Argus Track, a consumer-grade security camera with a range of features including 4K color images, dual-view display and hybrid zoom.

• Abode

Abode exhibited the Edge Camera, a revolutionary product in home security. This camera features a Wi-Fi HaLow system by Morse Micro, which provides a wireless range of over 1.5 miles. The Edge Camera is equipped with AI capabilities for motion, people and vehicle detection and offers versatile placement options thanks to its extensive range and six-month battery life.

• Belkin Auto Tracking Stand Pro

Belkin revealed the Auto-Tracking Stand Pro, the world’s first accessory to utilize Apple’s DockKit framework. The stand features a motorized base supporting full 360º swivel and up to 90-degree tilt, allowing it to track your face and keep you in frame as you move. Compatible with MagSafe, it offers fast wireless charging and includes a built-in rechargeable battery for up to five hours of operation.

Smart Home AI Boosts Comfort & Convenience

With smart home AI, you can use voice control features to manage basic home functions like smart lighting, robotic vacuuming, AI-assisted cooking, connected gadgets, and more. Smart home AI used to integrate a home automation system with artificial intelligence (AI) provides a smoother and more efficient daily living experience. Smart home AI technology operates through a network of sensors and devices, including motion detectors, temperature sensors, cameras, smart plugs, and smart appliances.

AI allows the devices in your home to learn and adapt according to your preferences and usage metrics. Devices like smart speakers, smart thermostats, smart robots, and ambient sensors are making our homes come alive and adjust the settings according to our choices. The best part is that we benefit from energy efficiency, which means lower power bills and a more environmentally friendly home. AI works with smart home apps to drive home automation.

Make Your Smart Home Better with AI

AI can learn from your usage habits, your property footprint, your appliances, and your energy consumption, making inferences from data to help you identify items in your home that need specific preventative maintenance, either done by you as the homeowner or to be scheduled through the generative AI on your behalf with a trusted third party of your choice.

Sources: 
https://nar.realtor/magazine/real-estate-news/technology/the-ultimate-smart-home-series-guide-24-products-of-note
https://nar.realtor/magazine/real-estate-news/technology/ai-at-home-five-ways-ai-is-enhancing-smart-living
https://zdnet.com/article/how-ai-in-smart-home-tech-can-automate-your-life/
https://geekflare.com/make-your-home-better-ai/