If only AI existed when I was growing up.
Walking down the subterranean steps of my childhood home in Rhode Island, there is evidence of damage from a now decades-old basement flood. I can remember the agony in my dad’s voice as he explained how a radiator malfunction caused the pipes to freeze and burst, resulting in hundreds of thousands of dollars in damage and sentimental property loss that couldn’t be as accurately calculated.
It’s not easy to pinpoint what, if anything, my dad could have done to prevent it at the time. But times are changing — and with the help of AI — maybe even for the better.
I’ve been a smart home tech reporter for a decade, and there is AI-powered machinery throughout my 1,100-square-foot cottage in New York’s Hudson Valley. While my home doesn’t look or feel particularly futuristic, it’s the AI you don’t see, hear or interact with much that I’ve come to appreciate.
That artificial intelligence is playing a bigger role in our lives via chatbots and generative content-creation tools is no secret. What may come as a surprise, is how AI can improve our everyday lives through seemingly small updates to the most common tools and appliances.
What I expect to see more of in the year ahead is not the futuristic fantasy tech we see in science fiction with home robots to prepare meals, fold fitted sheets and entertain the dog (sorry, Amazon Astro, wherever you are). The next big thing in our homes is far less bold but equally — if not more — impactful than robot nannies, maids and chefs. It’s a slow and steady improvement in your appliances and smart home tech coupled with preventive AI to diagnose problems in associated expensive appliances before they become full-on disasters.
In the year ahead, AI smarts in your home will be less about flashy robotics and more about subtle advances that improve safety and efficiency.
Smart water sensors now work 24/7 to detect leaks and frozen pipes and trigger a purge preventing costly flood damage and plumbing repairs. If my parents had today’s smart home tech, they would have likely saved a lot of money, time and heartache.
Likewise, large appliances with intelligent features can lower your winter energy bill or reduce the risk of a kitchen fire. Home security devices can even recognize deviant behavior from unidentified actors and clue you in.
These are just a few ways AI in the home has the potential to prevent catastrophe and improve . I expect — and welcome — more of this subtle AI in the home. It’s already happening, but 2025 will be a year we see home tech AI become commonplace.
AI will improve laundry day
Your next washing machine and dryer could be more intelligent than you realize.
The washing machine and dryer are two places where AI has been integrated and made an immediate impact. The AI modality isn’t flashy — I sadly still fold the clothes — but with intelligent sensors, you can expect a smaller energy bill and your favorite T-shirts to last longer.
LG’s latest washing machines cost about $1,000 but use sensors to detect the types of fabric you’ve lobbed inside as well as the size of the load. Using over 20,000 points of data, it picks an optimal cycle and uses water use accordingly, saving you from using more costly hot water than you need. AI-powered machine learning helps it to get better over time, not worse like washing machines of the past.
Read more: Lower Your Energy Bill by Cleaning Your Dryer Vent With These 5 Simple Steps
The dryer is able to make similar adjustments when it kicks off a cycle. LG’s core tech AI kicks in to detect the weight and moisture level of the clothes inside so it can dry for the appropriate amount of time, saving you precious energy or use a gentler heat that is less likely to damage delicate fabrics.
A representative from LG told me that the AI in its washer and dryer, while subtle, has been received well by consumers, including me. The brand expects that inevitably all of its laundry machines will have some form of this AI-powered calibration for better washing and drying results and clothes that last longer.
AI can prevent costly problems
Moen’s $550 Flo might not look like much this smart water sensor could have saved my childhood home from a ruinous flood if it existed in the nineties.
A piece of smart home tech that my dad (and his insurance company) certainly wish had been around is Moen’s Flo. The $550 Flo attaches easily to a home’s water main, learns your home’s unique water flow patterns and monitors for anything unusual, in which case it automatically alerts you and shuts the main water supply to prevent damage.
Unusual flow often means a leak, even the smallest of which can cause major damage to your home over time. When paired with one of Moen’s smart faucets, the system can purge the water pipes in your home to relieve the pressure or prevent them from freezing.
Water damage accounts for roughly a quarter of all homeowners insurance claims, and the emotional toll and loss of personal belongings only make this type of property damage more difficult to grapple with.
Undetected leaks are a common cause of widespread. Moen and other smart home brands are hoping to get in the way.
It’s an unassuming device with the potential to save billions in damage and loads more in personal property loss.
I spoke with one of Moen’s senior product managers, Suzy Kummer, who stressed how much the average person underestimates the likelihood of household leaks and the damage they can do. “It’s the number one claim for homeowners and is often emotionally devastating on top of causing higher insurance premiums.” According to Moen, 60% of Flo users have already discovered a leak thanks to the detection system.
Look for more diagnostic and preventive AI to become the norm in home heating, plumbing and electrical systems.
What you don’t know about AI in the kitchen
In the kitchen, where I do most of my technology testing, it is again less conspicuous AI technology that resonates most.
Super smart (and super expensive) AI-powered countertop ovens including the June (now defunct) and Brava — which try to optimize cooking by employing multiple cooking methods and precise cooking programs to roast strips of bacon or large cuts of meat — haven’t exactly caught fire with consumers.
Do-it-all smart ovens like the now defunct June are fun to show off but they’re not where kitchen AI is making the biggest impact.
My hot take is that people enjoy cooking, so robot chefs may not be the clearest path to a smarter kitchen, but AI smarts are improving the kitchen in subtler ways.
Samsung has taken big swings with its intelligent home appliances. The brand’s induction and electric ranges — I use one — communicate important information like whether or not a skillet you set down on its burner is compatible and politely ping your phone when the oven is preheated. There’s also an in-oven camera that allows you to keep an eye on a tray of cookies to avoid a burned batch.
Read more: The Best Smart Kitchen Tools Do a Few Things Well, Not Everything All at Once
Samsung refrigerators which start at around $2,500, also use AI smarts to increase efficiency and shave dollars off your monthly energy spend. Jeongseung Moon, Samsung’s head of R&D shared how its groundbreaking AI hybrid cooling technology “incorporates a Peltier module to enhance auxiliary mechanical power.” The AI algorithm assesses conditions and activates the Peltier module as needed, optimizing energy use and increasing the appliance’s overall efficiency.
Samsung’s latest refrigerators come with a module that keeps your machine humming along as efficiently as possible.
Smaller kitchen appliances have also been improved by intelligence while not being completely overhauled or fixed with robot arms. Blenders including Breville’s $500 Super Q (the best blender to buy if you’re going to splurge) are now outfitted with sensors that detect when dense, frozen food is causing blades to stick and alter speed and mode to get things moving again.
None of these advances feel as though they’ve been plucked from science fiction, but the incremental smarts add up to a feeling that everything is running a bit better with fewer headaches and less waste.
In the year ahead, I expect to hear less from top kitchen manufacturers about how their latest tool or appliance can do it for you, and more about how it can help you do it faster, safer and more efficiently.
AI advances in home security
AI is having a major impact on home security and it’s mostly for the better.
Home security has gotten its own injection from AI mostly in the form of precise object recognition. CNET’s home security reporter Tyler Lacoma wrote earlier this year that he expected to hate AI and home security mixed together, but ended up loving how AI enhanced the technology.
“Now you can find object detection and recognition on nearly every smart home cam.” Tyler Lacoma writes. “We’ve opened our doors to a quiet AI revolution where people, amazingly, have few complaints.”
While an Orwellian nanny state run amok isn’t inconceivable, for now, AI in home security has been used deftly to help homeowners keep tabs on packages left at the front door and be alerted to the goings-on in and around the home only when potential trouble is afoot, not every time a family member or squirrel passes by a camera.
AI powers your home helpers — and they’re getting better
With one trip around the home, Narwal’s advanced LIDAR room-mapping technology creates a detailed map so as not to miss a spot.
If it’s robots you want, look down and you’ll find them. Vacuums, mops and lawnmowers are clear examples of practical home robots. Thanks to continued advances in AI-powered object recognition, these home helpers no longer roam blindly looking for dirt and debris.
While not a new smart home category, advanced object recognition and machine learning have made robot vacs a poster child for AI in the home since the best of them come closest to eliminating a common household task that would otherwise be done by us.
Robot mowers have enjoyed a similar boost, and the top models now rely on GPS to more accurately and efficiently trim the tall fescue or Kentucky bluegrass in your yard.
I expect both mowers and vacuums to become better decision-makers in the year ahead with more precise functionality that helps these expensive home helpers prove their worth.
AI is making your home more energy-efficient
Thermostats have never been smarter and it could help you save big money.
It’s called a smart thermostat for a reason. Today’s smart thermostats aren’t just programmable but can learn your daily habits and adjust your home’s temperature accordingly. If you tend to like it colder at night while you sleep and warmer during the day because you work from home, for example, devices like the Google Nest Learning Thermostat can adjust your home temperature based on your pattern. Using technology called geofencing, thermostats can use your phone’s location (or in-room motion sensors) to tell when you’re away from home and set the temperature accordingly.
Beyond just controlling your home’s temperature, the thermostat of tomorrow (and many thermostats of today) can connect to multiple smart devices such as heat pumps, HVACs, smart fans, air purifiers and solar panels and can connect to your utility’s virtual power plant program.
Google Nest Learning Thermostat adjusts the temperature based on your home’s unique patterns.
Smart thermostat intelligence may not be the flashiest tech gadget in your home, but it can be one of the most impactful since it can help reduce your home’s energy use and therefore, your energy bill and your carbon footprint.
Preventive AI as part of your smart home
The AI you’re least likely to notice is the technology that prevents bad things from happening. This comes by way of customer service or technology jumping in before a problem with your fridge, stove, dishwasher, washing machine — or as in my case, plumbing — becomes a serious one.
LG’s proactive customer service program helps solve problems with large appliances as soon as they begin to take shape. A connected fridge, for instance, will trigger an alert to LG’s service team if it notices a change in cooling ability — something you may not notice on your own but could be a sign of a larger looming issue.
AI in the home: The bottom line
If you haven’t heard much about smart home robots like LG’s AI agent and Amazon’s Astro, it’s because subtler forms of home AI are making a far bigger impact.
With revolutionary technology like AI comes a flurry of creative attempts to incorporate robotics, machine learning and generative intelligence into our lives.
Some have already come and gone without changing the status quo much. Others continue to arrive quietly but have the potential to make a massive impact on our daily lives and homes. Those that guard against human or mechanical error and sand down the edges of an otherwise rough user experience.
I’ve gifted a few smart home devices to Dad over the years, some more exciting than others. While it’s not altogether flashy, if you ask Dad which piece of smart home tech he wished he’d had when a radiator malfunctioned and cold snap all but leveled the house and took with it family keepsakes and photo albums, it won’t take him long to answer.
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