Smart home devices should not only enable consumers to live better and save them time and cost, the technologies should also be made to last as demand for sustainable products continues to grow.
To achieve this broad range of aims, manufacturers will need to turn to artificial intelligence for answers, according to Zafer Üstüner, CEO of Arçelik Hitachi Home Appliances and Asia-Pacific CCO of Arçelik Global.
Üstüner describes the role of AI as critical and said to ZDNET that his company taps AI not only in the product design and development process, but also uses the technology to enhance other business processes, including communications and productivity.
Formed in July 2021 as a joint venture between Arçelik and Hitachi Global Life Solutions, Arçelik Hitachi Home Appliances provides manufacturing and sales services for Hitachi-branded home appliances outside Japan.
Its product range includes refrigerators, washing machines, and vacuum cleaners.
AI has enabled Arçelik Hitachi to learn from its mistakes and finetune its production flows, so it can improve operating costs and efficiencies, Üstüner said in a video interview.
These insights are then used in its operations and to track consumer demands, so products the company builds can better meet expectations, he said.
Asked what defines smart home appliances today, Üstüner pointed to products that improve customers' quality of life, as well as saving them time, energy, and cost, which means building devices that are made to last.
This approach puts emphasis on the durability and sustainability of products.
For manufacturers such as Arçelik Hitachi, he said the quality of its products will become more important.
Such requirements might grow to become more important than the intelligence of a smart home device, he added.
Products should also be made to last longer and use materials that have minimum impact on the environment, Üstüner said.
Consumers will then have to choose between paying more for products that last longer or less for those that are not as sustainable.
He said compaies should also should continue to deliver benefits for consumers, which means adding more intelligence into home appliances.
Arçelik Hitachi is working on technology that can help its refrigerators to predict a potential malfunction and schedule a maintenance before the system fails.
These systems can be facilitated with technologies that are already available, Üstüner said, but they need to be implemented at affordable price points to drive consumer demand.
Thieves can breach a smart home appliance to figure out when someone is out, so a poorly secured device has wide-reaching consequences for customers.
Üstüner said this reality drives Arçelik Hitachi to think about data security from the start - at the product design process.
Rigorous testing is also critical before any new product is rolled out, he added.
According to analyst IDC, demand for smart home devices has been falling, with global shipments dipping 5.6% year on year to 186 million in the first quarter of 2023.
This Cyber News was published on www.zdnet.com. Publication date: Thu, 04 Jan 2024 11:13:06 +0000