Many UK families now count Alexa as part of their extended family.
Smart devices and appliances that can perform tasks and automated routines to save you time, energy and money are growing in popularity fast and 57 per cent of British homes now contain at least one smart device.
Experts say turning your house into a smart home – with at least two devices that can connect wirelessly – can save you up to £450 per year and reduce your energy usage by around 30 per cent.
It seems homeowners are agreeing with them; there are currently around 175 million smart homes in the world, with 2.22 million in the UK.
But while we’ve happily got to grips with smart speakers and TVs, Internet-connected lightbulbs and household cameras, it won’t be long before we’re relying on even more advanced technology that predicts our needs, helping us with everything from cooking and cleaning to checking our health.
When it comes to 2022, experts predict that a new way of cooking is coming, with the smart oven tipped to be the most coveted kitchen must-have of the year.
These new ovens will pretty much do everything for you but take the dish out, relying on revolutionary volumetric cooking to cook different dishes at different speeds so that they will all be ready at the same time.
Smart ovens can also be controlled from your smartphone, allowing you to keep an eye on your food without having to open the door, and using voice-activated control to start and end programmes and change settings.
If you’ve just spent Christmas hovering next to the oven to check the turkey every 20 minutes, you might want to think smart and put a new oven on your wish list for next year!
