The room was full – both in capacity and level of excitement – at the Parks Associates Connections Summit 2020 as dynamic leaders in the Smart Home and Energy markets came together to teach and discuss some of the most groundbreaking, innovative and tried and true approaches and insights to today’s consumer-facing energy market. Panel and audience discussion focused on creating new experiences in the home, privacy and security concerns and solutions, independent living and wellness, emerging new networks and innovation behind new smart home and energy management solutions.
The theme of the discussions and the summit overall can be described with a few key words:
- Interoperability of devices across the Smart Home ecosystem
- Redefining innovation from a product to platform and use case perspective
- Flexibility of offerings to drive ease of installation, use and understanding to customers
- Empowerment of customers to see the difference they are making – both monetarily and environmentally
- Visible benefits to customers to show and prove the economic value of smart home and energy management installations
- Gamification to drive community involvement and interaction, driving connectiveness across neighborhoods, buildings and networks
Data is gold
Companies across the ecosystem of Smart Home including platform companies, device companies, data security and REPs reiterated the truest driver in further development in driving customer engagement in the home – DATA.
- Data for the companies across the Smart Home ecosystem to learn consumer behaviors, understand new forms of modality to enhance the in-home interactive experience and become increasingly more relevant as technology and consumer data aggregate.
- Data for the consumer designed to provide individual insights to homes coupled with actionable steps to react to energy efficient practices and save money, leveraging connected technology to bring value to customers with a user interface to deliver that value.
Without artificial intelligence which drives either automation or recommended automation of smart home functions, like turning the lights off at a certain time, smart homes will never achieve their potential value. True value won’t come from selling disconnected ideas.
Solutions can’t just be for companies to make recommendations.
Solutions can’t just be for companies to make better products.
With 50 – 100 devices in a home, consumers can’t be expected to figure out what each device does, much less integrate these devices to create a truly smart home. No one will automate their house the way that companies promote on their alone.
Leveraging data and AI is where a smart home becomes smart.
Intelligence behind it all is what will continue to drive adoption and opportunity in the home.
Defining the challenge
The challenge is clear – how do companies drive the increasing importance of energy efficiency to customers and leverage today’s technological opportunities to drive smart home adoption? Companies must meet their customers where they are through a mobile app.
Consumers today are a mobile-oriented demographic. To have the concept and importance of energy usage and efficiency increase in relevance, companies must meet their customers where they are, often thought a mobile app. Through that app, companies can incent customers to take actions to reap monetary benefits by driving new behaviors in the home.
Companies are teaming up vs. creating competitive (and similar) products and offerings to create value for the invisible, creating flexible approaches to add value and new channels to bring together Smart Home and energy management. Such approaches are creating experiences to drive explosion in growth.
Designing the solution
The opportunity is not new, but the curation of the right delivery is the common challenge that brings these companies together. With all the devices, gadgets and known benefits to customers present in the convergence of energy and smart home, the differentiating factor is through offering customized solutions. With so much choice in the market and the individualization wanted for homes, companies must create and deliver customized experiences and offer that with convenience and the promise of evolution. Customers are willing to pay to get more content and a better experience long term, translating into a growing revenue opportunity for companies.
Key elements of the solution are:
- Motivate interaction with your brand to deliver direct value vs. infrastructure
- Create articulate, proven and evolving value propositions and connection to customers
- Provide the sense of “human touch” by redefining what that human touch is
The role of energy companies in driving change
Fundamentally, consumers do not want to change their habits. This must be done over time. With two presented approaches, the end goal is the same – show customers the benefits they can receive from creating a reason for them to care about energy efficiency built around a smart home experience and then make it easy to recognize those benefits.
Energy companies play a critical role in driving smart home adoption. Historically focused solely on load management, some demand response offers have made that easier for utilities with seemingly voluntary programs. As smart thermostats and BYOD programs have outweighed the importance for many utility-owned DR programs, making it easier to control load, a new approach to engagement has been identified. Pricing models must change to further drive the adoption of new technologies, using smart home engagement as the trojan horse to drive energy efficiency.
Energy management PLUS experience is the answer, making customers feel better about contributing to the improvement of their environment. Companies must find ways to show customers how their energy is being used and help to create an energy literate society. Illustrating the tangible and monetary benefits of energy management to show the impact of changed practices was agreed to help drive adoption, too.
There is an observable trend by industry participants whether it be an energy company or utility, energy management platform, smart home platform or device and service maker for the energy industry, and that is the notion of carbon as “the thing” that customers are thinking about. No one understands a kilowatt hour, no one understands carbon either – but they know it is bad and less of it is better for everyone.
Summary
Thanks to Parks Associates’ Elizabeth Parks and her fabulous team for creating such an engaging experience at CES. It was great to listen to and participate in panels, all focused on critical intersections at smart home, energy management, security, privacy, independent living and networks. The convergence of these elements creates solutions that customers truly want.