The smart home hasn’t become a practical everyday reality yet, but the introduction of AI might change that. Interoperability, cost, and security remain issues in the smart home industry, but many of these issues will be addressed by the rollout of Matter, the Connected Standards Alliance’s (CSA) new communication standard. Despite improvements in how smart home devices communicate, there is still a lot of manual work involved in setting up and maintaining a smart home. However, Director of Product Management and IoT Lead at Rightpoint, Andy Watson, thinks that AI will change this. Watson has implemented IoT solutions in many settings, including smart homes, and believes that in two years, AI-powered homes will be a reality.
AI-powered voice control and automation introduced by Alexa and Google Assistant are just scratching the surface of what smart homes will be capable of. Generative AI presents a solution to make smart homes much more personalized. By collecting sets of data generated by smart home devices, it can identify patterns and take action on inferences, which will make smart homes much more intuitive. This will be a huge step forward for non-technical users, making it more accessible to operate smart homes.
Matter-based smart homes create more data accessibility which generative AI can unlock to tailor smart experiences. Watson explains, Even if you’ve got products that should work with one another, users still have to manually configure their devices to create those automations. Generative AI is going to push the industry to be a smart home industry. Privacy concerns are inevitable given the data that smart homes collect. Watson suggests that personal data generated from smart home interactions needs to live and be processed locally on the user’s device or network to ensure it remains private.
Generative AI has already been utilized in various settings. However, it poses certain risks due to a lack of guidance, regulation, and security. The big players in voice and AI, such as Amazon, Apple, Google, and Samsung, have been tight-lipped about how they will navigate generative AI in smart homes. Regardless, it’s only a matter of time before AI, Matter, and smart homes become a reality.
