Why AI Still Struggles to Run Our Smart Homes in 2025

When My Smart Home Loses Its Smarts

I began my morning as I always do, asking my Alexa-enabled Bosch coffee machine to whip up a cup of coffee. Today, however, my loyal gadget shrugged me off with an ambiguous excuse – and it’s doing so ever since the Alexa Plus upgrade. My smart household, powered by Amazon’s newly designed generative AI assistant, suddenly isn’t acting all that smart.

It’s 2025 – a time when artificial intelligence (AI) was imagined to render smart home management a piece of cake. We’ve all fantasized about a flawlessly integrated experience with voice commands that do their job, routines that occur like clockwork, and devices that foretell our requirements. Yet, this utopian dream seems to be slipping from our grasp as the reality of our smart homes is unorganised, derailed by miscommunications, missed signals, and inconsistent functionality. The irony is that as these AI assistants are becoming more advanced, they are parallely turning less reliable.

Crumbling Promises and the Road Ahead

Despite current setbacks, the potential of Generative AI and extensive language models in smart homes is indeed startling. The ambitious dream is that they will streamline device setup, customize interactions, and automate complicated jobs. However, the reality, as it stands, is still grappling with the basics. Everything, right from my coffee machine, lights, thermostat to smart blinds, skips a beat when asked to perform a task. Occasionally, Alexa Plus decides to go rogue further, performing completely unrelated tasks instead of simply following the familiar routine.

The root of this chaos can be traced back to the intricacy of our home environments. Each residence is a unique mishmash of devices, brands, and configurations. The lack of standardization, even with an augmented AI, makes it challenging to build a genuinely universal assistant. Adding to the chaos is the improvement in natural language processers, whose understanding of context and ability to execute multi-step directives reliably continue to stumble on their way up.

Technology, as it stands, is playing a double game. On the surface, it aims at simplifying our lives but ends up introducing more friction instead. Often, I find myself manually running the devices – a stark resemblance to the pre-smart times. The AI may be progressing in terms of conversation, but what good does it do if it fails to perform fundamental tasks like making coffee or switching off lights?

No doubt, the future of AI holds a stash of surprises and potential. Companies are investing heavily to improve these systems that one-day promise to deliver the crystal-clear vision of a responsive, intuitive smart home. For now, though, this dream remains distant. Until that day arrives, I will persist in demanding my morning coffee from Alexa, hoping that, someday, the excuses may cease.

Find out more about the highs and lows of AI in a smart home on The Verge.