Qualcomm Is Integrating On-Device Gen-AI Into Smart Home Devices

Qualcomm says that it’s presenting “the future of the smart home and digital life at CES”. Qualcomm is integrating on-device gen-AI into smart home devices, essentially.

The company is planning to present a range of innovations including AI chatbots, smart media, home robots, and smart refrigerators. If you’re in Las Vegas, you can see what’s going on for yourself.

Qualcomm says that “the smart home is evolving to include advanced capabilities”. The company used digital assistants as an example. Refrigerators are now able to monitor inventory, generate recipes, and even alert users when attention is needed.

The whole point of all this is to save time, reduce effort, and enhance security and health, says the company. Well, Qualcomm wants to help out with all that, as the transformation is “underpinned by generative AI and edge artificial intelligence”.

Generative AI introduced a “myriad of possibilities across industries”

Qualcomm says that generative AI introduced a “myriad of possibilities across industries”, while the company highlighted the smart home industry, as its very promising. Therefore Qualcomm is introducing new IoT solution frameworks aimed at enhancing the development of smart home and life products.

These frameworks are a part of the Qualcomm IoT solutions Framework. They’re designed to create, deploy, and scale AI-rich IoT applications efficiently. The new solutions include AI Chatbot for Home Appliances, Interactive Multimedia AI Optimization, and Home Service Robot.

All three of those solutions will be showcased at the Qualcomm booth at CES 2025. Qualcomm also added that it considers “2025 as the dawn of a new era in smart home evolution where devices will run on high-powered processors capable of handling complex AI tasks independently, going a step further than simply being connected to a home network”.

The company’s AI chatbot can engage in real-time interactive conversations

Qualcomm says that its AI chatbot can engage in real-time interactive conversations and that its responses are generated through a large language model. That chatbot can be integrated into a wide variety of smart home devices, says the company.

Thanks to this chatbot, you’ll be able to ask refrigerators to recommend recipes based on the ingredients that are available on the inside. It is also capable of compiling a shopping list for you, for additional ingredients. It will also be able to order them from a store for you, plus alert a family member to pick them up.

Qualcomm also said that we can expect “smarter TVs” which will be powered by Qualcomm’s Interactive Multimedia solution. This solution will utilize input from video cameras and microphones to perform computer vision and speech-to-text AI. It will allow users to control their TVs and connect smart home devices with natural language.

Qualcomm envisioned a companion robot in smart homes

And last, but not least, the ‘Home Service Robot’ section that Qualcomm mentioned. Qualcomm believes that the rise of generative AI is “paving the way for the prospect of a companion robot in smart homes”.

Qualcomm’s Home Service Robot “represents the culmination of our efforts in smart homes, integrating the AI chatbot with our robotics platforms”. It can respond to voice commands and also engage in natural language conversations. It has built-in cameras that enable machine vision and image recognition too. Therefore, the robot will be able to distinguish between a bottle of water and a soda can when prompted.