27% of U.S. Broadband Households Own at Least One Smart Speaker

A new report “Global Connected Living Outlook: Expanding IoT Momentum” reports 27% of U.S. broadband households reported owning at least one smart speaker. The research firm will host CONNECTIONS™: The Premier Connected Home Conferenceon May 22-24 in San Francisco to examine the impact of voice and AI innovations on consumer experiences in the smart home.

“Smart speakers with personal assistants represent the early stages of innovations that use AI elements to expand the user experience,” said Jennifer Kent, Director, Research Quality & Product Development, Parks Associates. “They have proven very successful and are part of the evolution in the connected home from a collection of standalone devices to a unified experience with personalized and coordinated scenes.”

CONNECTIONS™ features the session “AI: Contextual Learning to Drive Smart Home and Entertainment Experiences” on Wednesday, May 23, to examine the competitive advantages driven by data, the progress of AI, the value created by these applications, and the associated challenges with implementing AI in the home. Speakers:

• Ran Baror, VP Consumer Business, eyeSight Technologies
• Alex Capecelatro, CEO, Josh.ai
• Chris Jones, VP, Technology, iRobot Corporation
• Dr. Chris Mitchell, CEO & Founder, Audio Analytic
• Aditya Pendyala, Co-Founder | VP Growth, mnubo

“I am very excited to be on the panel and share my thoughts on how computer vision is being integrated into smart speakers in order to generate the ultimate user experience of voice and vision combined,” said Ran Baror, VP Consumer Business, eyeSight Technologies.

“AI and robotics will play a pivotal role in evolving the smart home by removing the burden and complexity of managing hundreds of IoT devices,” said Chris Jones, VP of Technology, iRobot. “In the future, robots will not only help keep the home clean but will help facilitate smart home automation that delivers personalized value to the consumer.”

“The primary use case of AI-driven applications in the consumer IoT space will be focused on delivering highly personalized customer experiences,” said Aditya Pendyala, co-founder and VP Growth, mnubo. “We are already seeing some aspects of app-level updates to connected devices become tailored based on learnings from usage patterns and actual product feedback data. IoT manufacturers will increasingly use AI-based IoT insights to improve product quality, enable proactive diagnostics and deliver better customer service.”

The session “Future of the Connected Home: Delivering on Promises,” on Thursday, May 24, looks at the next stages of the connected home with following speakers:

• Laura Crisp, Manager, Emerging Business, Chamberlain
• Kurt Hoppe, Global Head, Innovation – Mobility & Connected Services, GM
• Nigel Pugh, CEO, IMONT Technologies Limited
• Anthony Versarge, Head of Product, Health and Wellness, Comcast

“In such a rapidly advancing field, I’m really looking forward to discussing how changes in underlying technology can support future use cases and improvements to the overall customer experience with the other members of the panel,” said Nigel Pugh, CEO, IMONT Technologies Limited.

The 2018 CONNECTIONS™ Conference will host more than 650 high-level executives in an intimate networking environment. The event includes a mix of market research, analysis, and industry insight designed to capture the complexity and opportunities in these interconnected markets.