How Artificial Intelligence is Making Home Appliances Smarter

The smart home market is projected to reach $40 billion by 2020 in the United States alone. More than 50% of Americans say their smart products save them 30 minutes per day – or about a week and a half each year.

As demand for smart home products continues to grow, more companies are incorporating artificial intelligence into the mix – particularly with home appliances. Here’s how:

AI-Powered Air Conditioners

An estimated 40 million homes in the United States will have smart thermostats by 2020. But what about homes that don’t have central heating and cooling systems?

LG is introducing AI-powered air conditioners.

LG has already introduced its Whisen ThinQ air conditioning unit, which the company says can see, think, hear and speak. The unit can even understand users saying “I’m hot” or “I’m cold,” and make audible suggestions as to whether to turn the A/C on or off.

LG says their AI-powered air conditioner can help homeowners save up to 30% on energy and is compatible with home assistants, like Google Home and Amazon Echo.

These new advancements are sure to make air conditioning services and repairs more complicated, but they will offer a whole new level of convenience.

AI-Controlled Refrigerators and Ovens

LG appears to be leading the way with AI-controlled smart appliances. At CES 2018, the company announced a new line of home appliances that include artificial intelligence.

Now, their appliances are controlled by voice commands.

LG is incorporating its ThinQ AI platform to its appliances, which adds deep learning and interoperability into the mix. Essentially, the appliances will learn the user’s habits over time and will even communicate with each other. As one example, if the ThinQ calendar knows that you have a workout today, it will set the washing machine to your “gym clothes” setting to prepare for your after-workout wash.

In the kitchen, the InstaView ThinQ refrigerator allows you to create grocery lists, leave notes, check the weather and even tell you what’s inside the fridge. With AI incorporated into new models, you can choose a recipe directly on your fridge and ThinQ will communicate with your LG smart oven to start the pre-heating process.

All of these commands are controlled by voice, and LG will be launching its own robot called CLOi that connects all of its smart products.

AI-Controlled Cookware and Toaster Ovens

In the world of small appliances and cookware, SmartyPans and June are leading the way.

SmartyPans is a smart cooking pan that will actually track the nutrition of the food that’s being cooked in real time. The pan connects with fitness devices and apps, too, so you stay on track. Just tell the app which ingredients you’re adding, and the weight and temperature sensors allow the pan to calculate the food’s nutrition value.

June’s Intelligent Oven says it can take the guesswork out of cooking through artificial intelligence and sensors. The oven recognizes the food being cooked, and then it monitors and cooks the food to your liking. The June Intelligent Oven can identify up to 25 common foods.