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APPLIANCES / TREND PAPER Smart Homes A Look into Today's Trends and Opportunities 8 • Functional upgrades are a must. Smart kitchen equipment should continue to add functionalities such as useful notifications, energy-saving applications, and Wi-Fi capabilities. There are already select examples of this in the market. • A rising interest in cooking is forging unique platform partnerships. Smart appliance growth is also being facilitated by the growing interest in cooking. As a result, several appliance makers are creating partnerships to offer all-in-one home cooking multi-platforms. Capabilities include providing a seamless cooking journey, digital meal planning, grocery delivery and smart kitchen connectivity. • Small, smart kitchen appliances represent the most significant area of growth. In the smart appliance category, small appliances are driving growth ahead of major appliances. Multicooker and pressure cooker products, which account for 15% of the total small kitchen appliance market on a global scale, are leading the field. There are good reasons for this. Multicookers address the public's increased focus on healthy eating by reducing oils and fat during food preparation, while electric pressure cookers present a solution for consumers living in off-grid and weak-grid conditions. 5,11 • Waste reduction and energy monitoring are key benefits. While food preparation is the key driver behind the growth in smart refrigerators, microwaves, and ovens, smart appliances also support waste reduction and energy monitoring. With the world's energy demand expected to increase nearly 37% by 2035 10 , the adoption of smart home appliances can address energy concerns by enabling real-time communication that directs kitchen equipment to operate at low frequencies and during off-peak hours. • Appliance-as-a-service model may be the future. Over the past decade, the subscription model has changed the way consumers buy everything from software to food. A connected appliance-as-a-service model could transform the way consumers buy home appliances from a transactional model to a service-based one. In this format, consumers would get an appliance that offers the latest features including remote software upgrades, diagnostics, and on-call support. For manufacturers, the long-term economic value of monthly payments in perpetuity could create greater and more predictable revenue streams. 12,13 • Kitchens have become the centerpiece of a home. The function of the kitchen has also changed, moving from being a place for food preparation to becoming a center for entertaining, mingling, dining, and working among other things. One of the major forces behind the adoption and development of smart and connectable kitchen appliances is designing them with functionalities for integration into a broader smart home ecosystem. Incorporating AI into kitchen appliances is a growing area. For example, makers of voice assistants have been inspired to advance their technologies by integrating application programming interfaces (APIs) into their platforms. This guarantees control over certain appliances by enabling voice capabilities for essential tasks. For instance, some major appliances already allow consumers to preheat ovens remotely and use voice commands to operate stovetops. There are also smart microwaves that seamlessly download cooking instructions and read barcodes on food products while offering AI voice assistants to create a completely hands-free experience. Moving forward, machine vision and food inventory tracking systems in smart kitchen appliances are expected to detect missing ingredients, indicate food readiness, and recommend the need to raise or lower oven temperatures.