Artificial intelligence is conquering Italian homes / Gtres
Artificial intelligence is conquering Italian homes / Gtres

Are you thinking about integrating smart home solutions into your daily life? Here is some data from the Smart Home Observatory of Trovaprezzi.it on how the Italians are opening their doors to artificial intelligence.

Smart home – findings from the Observatory

Over the years, home automation has changed its face from being a simple electronic solution used to simplify home life, to a real network of interconnected appliances, thanks to the Internet of Things. The Trovaprezzi.it comparison site has created the Smart Home Observatory to reveal the preferences of Italians in terms of intelligent appliances and solutions for heating, air conditioning, electrical systems, control systems for windows, doors and burglar alarms, as well as various components of the house being controlled remotely.

Analysing a sample of about 45 top products, Trovaprezzi.it recorded over 126,000 searches from January 2018 to June 2019. Estimates for purchase intentions show a peak in the last two months of 2018: over 16,000 searches in November and almost 14,000 in December, confirming the increasing interest in the sector.

Internet of Things, data from the Polytechnic University

The data obtained from Trovaprezzi is confirmed by the findings of the Internet of Things Observatory of the School of Management of the Polytechnic University of Milan that show a growth trend in the Italian market for the connected home sector, with a total value of 380 million euros in 2018 and +52% compared to 2017. At the same time, the level of knowledge and diffusion of connected objects in Italian homes is growing: 59% say they have heard of an intelligent home at least once and 41% say they have at least one smart object. In absolute terms, however, Italy ranks only above Spain (300 million euros, +59%), but the gap is still wide with Germany (1.8 billion euros, +39%), the United Kingdom (1.7 billion euros, +39%) and France (800 million euros, +47%).

Smart home speaker on top of preferences

Among the products preferred by Italians, in addition to solutions related to home security such as alarm systems, doors and windows and video surveillance that in recent years have already conquered a slice of the market, in 2018 we found the smart home speakers: Google Home and Amazon Echo were among the top products that drove the growth of the sector. Prices range from a minimum of 29.99 euros for Google Home Mini - the speaker controlled by voice commands that connects to your devices to play music, answer questions, read the latest news, provide weather forecasts, set alarms, check compatible devices for Intelligent Home - to a maximum of about 150 euros for the 2nd generation Echo Plus model.

Smart wifi washing machines, latest generation appliances

In the field of household appliances, the most popular is the intelligent washing machine connected to the Internet and programmable through a special app: for example, an LG model (FH4G1JCS2) Twin Wash costing about 680 euros, thanks to SmartThinQ technology, allows you to monitor and manage laundry at any time and anywhere you are, keeping track of energy consumption or using the Download Cycle to add a whole range of new washing programmes that can help you save energy and reduce the running costs of your home in Italy. Another important item are Smart TVs, present in most Italian homes, with different prices and models, but all with functions and services related to the Internet.

More niche, however, are the solutions for the management of heating and air conditioning: boilers, air conditioning and thermostats that are connected to the voice assistants and at the same time able to ensure significant energy savings. Significant growth has also been identified for lighting solutions: connected light bulbs, wifi switches and intelligent sockets are increasingly being tested in Italian homes.