Samsung introduced its newest kitchen products at CES in January 2024, including those which include AI integration and its SmartThings connectivity to deliver an enhanced consumer experience.  The most notable products in its lineup include:

• The 2024 Bespoke 4-Door Flex™ Refrigerator with AI Family Hub™
• The Anyplace Induction Cooktop
• The Samsung Food service

The 2024 Bespoke 4-Door Flex™ Refrigerator with AI Family Hub™

The updated refrigerator is packed with various innovative technologies including a smart internal camera that can visualise items inside and ‘Vision AI’ technology which can accurately identify up to 33 different fresh food items based on a predefined set of training data comprising approximately one million food photographs. With the food list that is available and editable on the Family Hub™+ screen, users can manually add expiration date information for items that they would like to keep track of, and the refrigerator sends out alerts through its 32” LCD screen for these items before reaching the set expiry date. Other features include monitoring of the water filter status with alerts when a replacement is needed via the Fridge Manager feature.

The Anyplace Induction Cooktop

The induction cooktop, part of Samsung’s Slide-in range, is equipped with a 7” LCD screen which enables users to view recipes saved previously from the Family Hub™+ to assist their meal preparation.

Samsung Food Application

Samsung’s food application can now be accessed on the Family Hub™+ and its Slide-in Range and has several new AI features. Powered by Food AI, the ‘Personalize’ feature enables users to adapt recipes to reflect their dietary requirements, including gluten-free, pescatarian, dairy-free, and other diets. The new ‘Image-to-Recipe’ feature with Vision AI now recognises potential meals that can be made with the ingredients in your fridge. ‘Tailored Meal Plan’ analyses users’ information by connecting to their Samsung Health profiles to create personalized meals based on their wellness preferences.

DATAportl analysts believe that whilst many of these new features, or similar, have been integrated into kitchen appliances previously, the importance here is the emergence of an ecosystem of connected devices with the aim that they can communicate to enhance the consumer experience. 

It doesn’t feel like Samsung, or other brands, have quite delivered this yet with most kitchen appliances and features being more useful on each standalone appliance than as a collective. Importantly though, an ecosystem framework is emerging whereby an appliance that sits in every kitchen could integrate and power a central hub that can manage the communication with other nodes in the home and provide the processing required to overlay AI driven functions. A trained AI learning model that can manage food stock, use by dates, plan and guide meals that fit the preference, lifestyle and goals of the individual user is both exciting and within reach once an ecosystem of connected devices is in place. 

Extended to automated cleaning appliances, assistance robots and general home automation, AI is likely to be the enabler (over a common connectivity interface) that allows smart home devices to interact to deliver optimal personalised consumer experience. With these latest products, it feels more like Samsung is laying this framework ready for future capabilities than pushing the boundaries with new innovation.

The original article is here.