Can Amazon Echo, Google Home or Apple HomePod Help Me with My Bills?
The smart home is coming. If it’s so smart, can it help me figure out how to cut my utility bills or manage the cost of maintaining my home? It seems like right now all these “smart speakers” do is DJ music, set reminders or entertain me when I am bored.
Can AI agents really do something to help me reduce my utility bills or cost of running the zoo I call “home”?
Amazon Echo
Smart speakers are really an AI agent accessible via a supped up speaker with a microphone. Amazon’s agent is called Alexa. Out-of-the-box, Alexa does no better than your googling on a chrome browser. But you can enable “skills” for Alexa. To see all of them, go here. Let’s see what they have.
A few utility companies let you check your account balance or even pay your bill, e.g. TXU Energy. There are educational bots like this one that “teach by facts” or this skill that give energy tips. There’s a general budgeting skill applicable to a home. There’s also Home Assistant that lets you turn things on and off. Frankly, we are not seeing much useful stuff or anyone using them when it comes to saving money.
What we do see are moderately rated skills for controlling stuff in your home by voice. So, the best way to use Alexa to save money is to be aware of your monthly balance and turn things on and off appropriately. If you set it all up, Alexa would make those steps easier. That’s about it for now.
Google Home
Google and its AI agent “Google Assistant” have been doing the smart home thing for a while. Google also has previously worked on AI to help people figure out where all their electricity is going. But, alas, that project got canned few years ago.
Google doesn’t list out all its abilities like Amazon does. People cover some of them. For example, here’s lifewire’s top 100 or CNET’s list so far. What we’ve found is that asking Google Assistant questions about utility bills, home maintenance and saving money is no better than a Google search.
Apple HomePod
Apple and Siri, the first famous AI agent. This one didn’t require much looking into or testing. Apple HomePod is sold as a premium speaker with crazy “smart sound”. Siri helps you with saving money or home maintenance as much on your iPhone as it does over the speaker, i.e. it’s no better than a voice-activated google search.
Buy a smart speaker if you want a DJ, reminders, entertainment and other stuff, not to help with bills or home maintenance. Not yet. If you think a smarter home can help you manage your utility bills and maintain your home, try something like a smart plug or smart strip first.
