'Transformational Smart Home' Will Reshape Interactions, Services, Says ABI

The transformational smart home will “reshape" both "consumer services and citizen interactions,” ABI Research reported Thursday, outlining six concepts driving investment and adoption. The “sentient home” will automatically adjust in real time to changes in weather and individuals’ presence and preferences, said Jonathan Collins. The “cooperative home” will be part of a network of homes integrated within an area to manage, control, use and share resources efficiently, while the “new lifestyle home” will support more activities within a smaller footprint. “Home as a business” will support new revenue-generating services for residents; the “low-impact” home will automate control of selection, delivery, and consumption and disposal of goods and services “in a push toward zero environmental impact;” and the “marketplace home” will define how smart home management providers control access to consumers, said the analyst. New capabilities will emerge across sensing, connectivity, artificial intelligence and robotics. An ecosystem of smart home service companies will emerge to assist and manage how new and existing vendors and industries extend their smart home reach, Collins said: Though tech giants like Amazon and Google appear to have outsized influence in determining the future of the smart home, “that underestimates the wave of change coming to the smart home market and the opportunities that lie beyond the scope of even today’s largest smart home players.” ABI predicts global smart home spending will grow at a 24.4% compound annual growth rate to $317.6 billion by 2026.