Connectivity vs AI – advanced home appliances and how you’re taking advantage without doing a thing

For a long, long time now we’ve been discussing the “Smart Home” or “Connected Home” and how all our “things” working together can make life easier, safer even cheaper.  Lately the talk has turned to Artificial Intelligence (AI) and while many people might find that alarming, in fact your appliances might already be using AI to help you and you didn’t need to lift a finger.

To get to the bottom of this, I sat down with Jeremy Senior, Vice President – Consumer Electronics at Samsung Australia to unpack and separate what is AI and what is connected home.

The reason for that separation is the potential confusion in the market that “connected” also means AI – when in fact the are two vastly different features of a modern appliance.

Jeremy Senior says that the reach of connected devices is quite large already, saying “Australians have around 10.9 connected devices on average in their homes today. Whether they’re all connected and working in unison is challengeable. But Australian’s are starting to buy products that, if they add them together, can deliver meaningful benefit to them.”

“A lot of the connectivity outcomes are supported by machine learning or AI, but can also operate in isolation of any AI sophistication to that.”

An example Jeremy gives of smart connected home versus artificial intelligence which is quite clear: “turning the light on via your smartphone isn’t AI.” 

However, he adds “having your refrigerator compressor learn the behaviours within your home and adjust its power output to accommodate that is AI.”

For something a little more detailed, Jeremy heads to a laundry example saying “One of the better examples of that is our BESPOKE AI washing machines where they will detect the load size and detect the soiling type, then automatically adjust the amount of detergent that needs to be used as well as the ideal cycle for this particular load.[1]”

Acknowledging those might also be features people have heard off, he added: “Australians can also utilise AI to massively reduce their energy consumption by choosing time of day so the cycle starts when the house’s solar panels are in operation, or opt for cold water wash cycles that are relevant to the soiling. That is where that machine learning and AI functionality really comes to the forefront.”

Personally, I think the challenge that the technology industry as a whole has is the definition of AI.  We all know about the rise of large language models doing generative AI to help us write, learn or even generate images.

But how do we define AI if it’s also used in things like appliances? Jeremy Senior has the answer. When asked, he said: “AI is such a broad topic. A lot of your listeners would be familiar with generative AI engines and that would be their view of AI. But the way that we contextualise AI is where technology is making life simple.”

That’s it – is this bit of technology doing some of the thinking for you?  Well, that’s probably a form of AI helping make your life simple.

For Samsung there’s a clear focus to their approach with AI, says Senior. “It is a broad topic and lots of different brands have lots of different views around how it comes to life. But our focus is really on how AI delivers a consumer benefit, whether that be via energy saving, ease of product use, length of product use. We look at it in terms of how that product can be managed to have a longer  lifecycle.”

Don’t think for a moment that a company like Samsung or an executive like Jeremy Senior are just thinking about our TVs and washing machines; they see the benefits of AI long into the future.

Jeremy uses aged care as a great example of that, saying: “I think AI has an absolute role to play in ensuring that people can stay in their homes, and feel safer and secure for longer. Whether that be motion detection, so that if you are living away from your elderly parents as an example, you can have devices that will help keep track of whether they’re living a healthy life. 

“With Samsung’s Family Hub refrigerator, you can see what food your elderly parents have put into their refrigerator[2]. You don’t need to go and visit the house. Using the Samsung BESPOKE AI Oven, you can determine whether they’re cooking.”

For Jeremy, it’s a ‘whole of life’ approach. “There’s all these things where AI and connectivity can help people no matter what stage of life they’re in.”

Importantly, Samsung isn’t coming in late to the AI game. Samsung has invested actively in AI for a long time having established Global AI research facilities as well as recruiting AI Experts with over 1,000 researchers across their seven global AI centres.

Next time you see an AI label on an appliance, you can now consider the simple question – is it able to do some of the thinking for me?  If so, then that’s AI.

^{[1] Actual results may vary depending on individual use. SmartThings app, a Wi Fi connection and a Samsung account are required. Available on Android and IOS devices.}

^{[2] Items need to be scanned 1 at a time. The Family Hub cannot identify or list any food items in the fridge door bins or freezer. Accuracy not guaranteed.}

This article was written with the support of Samsung Australia, we call it Supported Editorial, where our partners help us allocate time to articles we’re keen to write but might not otherwise be able to prioritise.