CES reveals progress The intelligent home isn’ t science fiction, the basic technologies and enablers are already in place.
At CES 2026, we saw Samsung’ s Bespoke AI Refrigerator Family Hub Fridge which scans contents via AI Vision, suggests recipes from what’ s inside, reorders staples( like milk for Luca) automatically, and pulls up personalised schedules on its screen.
LG’ s ThinQ AI platform and CLOiD robot integration orchestrates appliances with proactive care. The oven identifies dishes via its camera and adjusts cooking times; robot assistants handle 0physical tasks such as loading or prepping. Family patterns such as wake-up sequences and child routines are learnt, turning reactive commands into a gentle, automated, context-aware flow.
Govee, Aquara and others introduced adaptive / contextual lighting systems that shift automatically with time of day, activity or even mood – dimming lights softly for morning coffee, or simulating sunrises to gradually wake up the family.
Matter-powered predictive automation ecosystems ensure thermostats, locks and sensors anticipate occupancy, weather and energy costs. Families can now enjoy showers pre-heated to their preferred temperature, doors unlocked as they approach, or heating gently uplifted if there’ s rain.
The whole home now quietly coordinates and adapts in the background.
Telcos’ opportunities According to Cottam, the intelligent home opportunities for telcos are huge. She argues that the household has always been a blind spot for operators who deliver gigabyte connectivity but don’ t really understand what households are doing within the home.
This is a mistake, according to Cottam.“ Even the terminology‘ home gateway’ reveals that telcos are still not properly oriented to the opportunity,” she says.“ This vital piece of CPE should be rebranded as the home intelligence point – somewhere from which you not only proactively optimise the home network, but also provide the home AI and a far wider range of services. The opportunity is to operate as service provider, intelligent integrator and interface to the customer.”
The key, as Katie Costanzo – president, customer experience, CSG – explains is to make things simpler.“ Customers want things to be simpler,” she says.“ They want an easy experience that is consistent from end-to-end. But for brands to make experiences truly easy, they need to understand the customer like never before. This means battling data silos to gain a unified view of the customer, then using tightly scoped agents and automations to craft a fluid, adaptive customer experience that feels truly personal.”
This is where the next generation of home gateways( as we will call them for now) really comes into its own – becoming smarter and providing support for a far wider range of functions. Newer gateways will support the low latency, higher throughput and secure networking – based on WiFi-6E and Wi-Fi 7 – that intelligent homes are going to need as more devices are connected and more services offered. A reliable connection will be essential to ensure sensors, locks, climate control devices, lighting and other smart objects work as expected. Gateways are already evolving into intelligent platforms that allow for home orchestration and a high-quality, intelligent home experience – with any problems resolved proactively and automatically.
The days of having to fiddle with cumbersome buttons and menus will be long gone – as will the need to re-attach smart objects that have randomly disconnected. Instead, the voice interface will become primary. While there’ s nothing easier and more natural than telling a home AI what you want it to do, this opens up another exciting new area of service possibility for telcos – something Cottam calls the‘ dialogue centric experience’. INTERFACE.“ Telcos have the opportunity to own this strategic interface with the customer,” Cottam says.“ Voice isn’ t dead, as we’ ve been told, it’ s only just getting started. Telcos have been masters of voice since 1876 and are ideally placed to dominate this market, because they have all the vital components, the history, the heritage and customer trust to orchestrate the end-to-end dialogue-driven experience.”
According to Cottam, this is a fastevolving situation with opportunities for telcos around AI, personalised connectivity, new applications, B2B2C partnerships, data storage, cybersecurity and more – but with voice interfaces at the fore.
Mike Woods, EVP and President, Communications, Media & Technology, CSG, agrees. He comments that telcos are set to“ reinvent themselves through sharper offers and smarter service. The industry’ s hidden
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