It’s 10:05am on a Sunday morning and your alarm clock starts buzzing – it has scanned through your schedule and analysed your sleep cycle. Your shower starts running with cold water – the mini fridge has warned the shower that you may have a headache. Your oven preheats to 198°C – it knows the perfect temperature to crisp up your breakfast to your preference. Your refrigerator shines a light on a nutritious smoothie – it’s helping you start the day right. You sit back in your chair, smiling to yourself, feeling a lot better than you thought you would’ve when you went to bed eight hours ago. 

In recent years, automation has been revolutionising various aspects of our lives. One area that has seen significant advancements is the proliferation of domestic automated devices. The automated homes market size is currently valued at $84.9 billion and is forecast to grow to $188.1  billion by 2030.  

Do we now have what we once imagined?

For years we’ve had ideas about what automation could look like around the house. The Brits among you might recall a scene in the 1968 film ‘Chitty Chitty Bang Bang’, where Dick Van Dyke’s character created a machine that cooked a full breakfast with the flick of a switch. When this film was made, smart ovens and coffee machines were a distant dream. Let alone voice activated light switches, robotic floor hoovers, smart security systems equipped with cameras and sensors, or thermostats that could be operated from your phone. Sounds like we’ve already got it all, right? Wrong… 

Nearly 40% of unpaid domestic work will become automated in the next 10 years. But the rise in domestic automation is not limited to streamlining household chores and improving security. Smart healthcare is also creeping into our homes. Take TOTO, a company developing a toilet with embedded sensors that will scrutinise our waste and look for indicators of potential health problems. Appliances using emotional intelligence technology are also just around the corner, which could remove some of the burden for at-home carers. 

What’s in store for the future?

Already, we are heading away from voice commanded light switches, to total immersion in the Internet of Things (IoT). The IoT is a web of connected devices that can communicate with each other via the internet. Recent advances in machine learning and analytics, conversational AI, and cloud computing platforms have helped make the growth of the IoT possible.  So, a world where there is seamless communication between appliances that anticipate people’s needs in a connected home ecosystem is not a distant dream…  

Companies are investing in infrastructure to provide application programming interface (API) to partners to give data to other connected devices in their integrated home system. And the result? Enhanced user experience, removing the burden of home programming away from the customer. By understanding how the technology better fits into homes, consumers will buy and use more of the technology. Last year, there were over 42 billion IoT devices installed, up 20% from the previous year, relating to a market growth of $54 billion. Toto’s smart toilet might one day communicate with the refrigerator about potential food intolerances – a selling point for both the health-conscious millennial and a family.  

At what price?

However, this all comes at a cost. When thinking about the smart healthcare space and automating remote healthcare, questions can and must be raised and addressed – for example, can emotional intelligence technology replicate the warmth and empathy of human interaction? What happens to those who rely on domestic work for income? Will new opportunities be created, or will re-training be encouraged? Not to mention – as our homes start to learn more about us, our medical conditions, our preferences, our habits, our schedule – what about data protection? The more information that we give away, the more it becomes essential we protect ourselves against hackers that can exploit this data. As the capabilities of our integrated systems improve, so must our cybersecurity. For lots of people, data privacy will also become a big concern, throwing out the question: how much information about your life are you willing to give to 3rd party companies in exchange for an enhanced user experience? The future of domestic automation and the IoT offers undeniable benefits. However, companies must address these concerns and give consumers the peace of mind they need before purchasing their products. Take Google Nest – it has multiple layers of security and uses leading encryption technology such as  HTTPS and Transport Layer Security. Whatever your challenge when implementing new technology, our team can help build a tailored solution for you. 

Our work with a leading robotics company

Our team of data and AI experts at Elixirr, including our latest acquisition, Responsum, have deep experience across large language models and generative AI. For example, we’ve worked with a leading global robotics company that has sold tens of millions of domestic robots, helping them build their next generation data platform to connect their robot system. Over the past 5 years, we’ve collaborated on a data platform that is future-proof and scalable, considering the risks and challenges discussed above. By optimising performance and efficiency, we’ve been able to improve customer satisfaction metrics and platform costs by up to 3000%. And, by uploading performance information to the cloud, we are opening the door to AI and machine learning approaches that can be fed back down to individual appliances – a real life example of the future of domestic automation.  

The rise of automation in domestic work is transforming our homes, making them more convenient, efficient and secure. Thanks to the IoT, our appliances will be able to communicate with each other to make our lives more comfortable. You have the chance to capitalise on this increasingly available technology to improve your customers’ experience and satisfaction, and we have the expertise. 

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