Here’s How New Trends Will Impact Your Home Life in 2018 and Beyond

From your living room to your mobile cockpit, your world is about to go NextGen in a very big way. AI has graduated, and it’s now leveraging its way out of your phone and off your coffee table to probe every corner of your home. If current AI trends continue, not even your toilet will be left unchanged.

Here’s how the latest A.I. trends will impact our lives at home.

We’ll Start to See A.I. in the Home for Everyone

Experts forecast that over the next five years, installation of smart home devices will grow at a rate of 42 percent in the United States. And the fuel for this growth? Smart speakers — they’re not just for the tech-savvy any more. They’re getting smarter, cheaper, and easier to use.

Smart speaker adoption is growing globally, too — they’re currently the fastest-growing consumer tech item in the world, with an estimated 56.3 million shipping this year alone. That’s up from less than 35 million in 2017.

We’re talking smart thermostats, voice-controlled entertainment, and connected door locks for the masses. Get ready for ubiquitous A.I.

Alexa & Friends Will Become Even More Helpful

Meanwhile, first adopters of smart speakers will move on from impressing their friends to getting things done around the house. Yes, Alexa and friends can help you run your home, too. From toilet flushing to clothes washing, lawn care, and pet care, A.I.-assisted voice is about to become our new best friend (one who really helps out a lot with chores).

Here’s an out-there example that just may catch on: Kohler’s smart toilet speaks to germaphobes everywhere- no need to touch the handle in order to flush.

On a more practical note, vacuuming is undergoing yet another A.I. upgrade. Last Fall, a German maker of household products Vorwerk purchased Neato Robotics. The result could mean an upset for other vacuum bootmakers like iRobot because Neato vacuums will have better A.I. that actually figures out where vacuuming needs to take place. They’ll also use navigation and mapping to get the job done to perfection. Leave it to the Germans to make a smarter bot for a cleaner home.

You Won’t Need a TV to Have a Smart Home

You won’t need a TV set and you won’t need smart speakers, either. Sure, you can buy an Nvidia SHIELD TV with Google Assistant built right in… and it behaves much like a smart speaker. That was last year’s news, though. A newer trend is finding A.I. in every little device throughout your home. No need for a central command station.

The reason for these great leaps forward is that voice assistants like Alexa will no longer be confined to smart speakers. Yes, devices like Amazon’s Echo will become ubiquitous but the new direction is that we’ll be interacting with voice assistants directly via the device we’re using. A major driver of this trend is the folks at Amazon, who have released developer kits so product developers can use Alexa in their devices.

An example—  definitely one of the darlings of CES 2018 — is a mirror. Part mirror, part YouTube, part skincare advisor and part makeup artist, the device turns the daily chore of prettying up into a high-tech endeavor.

Expect professional results. In one fell swoop, the makers of HiMirror have raised the bar for makeup application to dizzying heights. Take a look at what it can do:

• Assess the condition of your skin & suggest techniques and products for making improvements
• Provide various ‘mood lighting’ scenarios for environment-appropriate makeup application
• Suggest makeup tutorials for the look you’re after and display them on-screen

You Won’t Just be Driving — You’ll be Operating a ‘Mobile Cockpit’

‘Driver’s seat’ is about to become old skool terminology. Now, when you buckle up for your commute or a quick jaunt to the grocery store, you’re doing so from a ‘mobile cockpit’. And it’s not just a commute or an errand — it’s a User Experience.

Having pierced the outer limits of how they can improve upon the smooth, quiet ride, luxury automakers like Mercedes-Benz are now focusing on connected technology. The results look nothing like those old, mediocre first-gen infotainment systems, which is why these new touch screens and voice commands are now garnering rave reviews. The primary reason: their high-end computer chips that impress even the most jaded of tech-savvy drivers.

No more pixelated displays, crappy connections, or underpowered apps. The new direction is toward premium chips that can handle real A.I., smooth touch screening, natural language processing, and actual machine learning.

That means if you’re in your Benz and you need to get somewhere on time, just ask if you’ll make it. No need to beat around the bush with machine-friendly questions that break it down into simple yes-no questions like, “is there lots of traffic on Jefferson Ave?”. Just ask, “will I be late for my meeting?”. Your Benz will figure it out for you.

Great Stuff, But do We Need It?

Yup, that’s what our ancestors said when introduced to sliced bread. They said it again with the telephone, the personal PC, and the mobile phone. As tech trends evolve, there are some who embrace them and others who, well… are still ripping apart loaves of bread with their fingers. Or preparing their taxes by hand. Or missing out on all the ways mobile apps make our lives better.

Just as you can’t imagine living with old technology and the horribly cumbersome ways of previous generations, future generations won’t believe we’re now risking our lives by driving and texting at the same time. They’ll be shocked that we flush our toilets by hand or that we gaze into static mirrors that do nothing but reflect back at us. Be on the lookout for amazing devices like these, that impact your home life in more exciting ways you never knew you needed.