Ever since smart technology made its debut in the globally available consumer stage, we all saw our lives will be completely changed. The extent of these changes and just how fast they are going to occur, however, was beyond anyone’s wildest imagination.
Voice-activated devices, full home automation, AI assistants… All these things were, not that long ago, something you could see only in your preferred Star Trek show. Now, each household boldly goes where even the good old Enterprise didn’t.
All these changes envelop at a pace that is, at this point, very hard to even call an evolution. Each day, a new trend will enter the scene and set the market pace for years to come. Let us take a look then at some of these disruptive smart home trends so we know what brews on the future real estate horizon.
A growing level of integration
Smart home systems were always built around the idea of integration. Without it, there is nothing particularly smart in the bunch of devices minding their own business. However, in recent times, the potential for integration has truly blown through the roof.
Take for instance smart toilets that may sound as superfluous and menial as it gets. Still, they are capable of analyzing the waste and sharing data with other tools and apps tracking your health. This may result in prompts to change nutrition. This data can be shared with your kitchen devices. The possibilities for integration are limitless.
New tools for every single chore
You know how they say – the free market provides. Well, the idea behind smart home tech is to make our lives simpler and more streamlined. With that in mind, there is really no limit on what can be made smart and what not. So, we will see an onslaught of devices addressing virtually all activities of one household until some of them find market legs while others, inevitably, fall into oblivion.
How about smart dog houses? Sure, the idea sounds good and if enough consumers jump on board they will stick the landing. This trial and error process will, if anything, open doors for endless innovation.
Things will keep going touch-less
At this time, the idea of completely abandoning any semblance of touch controls may seem odd. After all, touch inputs offer great tactility, precision, and responsiveness. But, there is a general consensus that touchless tech is somehow more convenient and industry leaders will keep working on various types of voice and AR inputs until they make touchless controls as usable as the current gen of touch commands. And then there are the unforeseen factors like the recent outbreak of COVID-19 that give this idea new fuel. Come hell or high water, touchless control will make a break.
Innovation given birth by sustainability
Sustainability has become one of the greatest priorities of modern society. Keeping in mind the fragile state of the energy sector and soaring power prices, it is easy to see this trend is not born only by altruistic reasons. So, things like smart thermostats, smart LED lights, and other inclusions have by now pretty much become the staple in all real estate market segments that range from apartments for rent to building segments. This is especially evident in modern tech-oriented hubs like Jacksonville. These requirements will keep adding new items to the list of smart home tech.
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Increasing reliance on Artificial Intelligence
Some forms of artificial intelligence have been present in home tech for decades now. Still, a greater level of autonomy and self-regulating operations are not the first thing that qualifies as AI these days. Even more so, when we consider just how this technology has passed in the meantime and how pleasant it is in all aspects of our daily lives. Picking up countless duties ranging from fixing your photo to curating the entertainment content and planning your daily routines, AI has crawled its way into our homes. It will continue to do so in countless shapes, forms, capacities, and types of devices.
The growing relevance of health tech
Millennials who now comprise the bulk of new homeowners and renters have often been cited as the ‘wellness generation.’ Their tendencies and laser focus on personal health have definitely sent ripples down the real estate and smart tech sectors. First, there is a whole avalanche of new devices oriented toward fitness, wellness, and mental well-being.
But, even the tools that previously didn’t have health components are now expanding to this lane. We are talking about thermostats, toilets, doorbells with COVID-19 screening functionalities, and a growing list of similar inclusions.
At-home-exercise breaking into mainstream
We briefly touched on this trend in the previous section, but keeping in mind its popularity and sway at-home-exercise is an entirely different beast with its own momentum. Once again, the roots of the trend can be traced back decades into the past but the time it truly blew through the roof was the outbreak of COVID-19 when gyms and fitness centers got closed.
No reason to worry, though – you now get an army of different trainers, ellipticals, and other fitness-focused devices that use all the perks of the available IoT ecosystem. Their growth slowly but steadily pushes them into the mainstream.
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A shift toward home working environments
Ah, yes – yet another trend that was a long time coming but was given an incredible boost by the recent global pandemic. Be that as it may, the fact remains that, at the moment, about 90 million Americans have the opportunity to work part-time while 80 million use that opportunity, at least part-time.
These numbers, for all what it’s worth, are only going to grow. So you can expect to see a range of products that are designed specifically to tap into this massive market niche. We are talking about things like smart noise-canceling windows, AR tech, AI video filters, and other products.
PC-less homes going forward
And when we say PCs we are thinking about our good old laptops as well. The ancillary tech fronted by smartphones has been carrying a growing share of the load in terms of productivity for quite some time now. Ranging from media consumption to correspondence, and video editing, home devices, smart boxes, and other items are making traditional computers obsolete. Some phone brands like Samsung and Motorola even offer full desktop experiences in the palm of your hand. Expect to see the productivity of tomorrow moving in the direction of fragmentation held together by IoT and Cloud services.
Wrapping-up
Well, we hope these couple of examples gave you a better idea about the direction the world of smart home tech might be moving in years to come. And, from what we can see right now the future of this market segment will be bright indeed even as its long-term outcomes still remain obscure. The most important thing to take out, however, is that this market segment is just picking up pace and that its full fruition is still way ahead. Until then, the best we can do is keep an ear on the ground and enjoy whatever the smart home market keeps throwing our way.
Featured image by Freepik
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