Scott Steinberg, futurist and CEO of a leading strategic consulting and market research firm, gave the CEDIA Expo 2023 keynote address on Sept. 6 in the Colorado Convention Center in Denver. The keynote, titled, “The Unstoppable A.I. Revolution That’s Coming to the Home,” focused on all the ways artificial intelligence has leaked into our lives. In an audience of mostly CIs, that’s certainly true, as technology that customers likely want integrated into their home has become smarter, easier to use and less noticeable. But where does AI actually fit in?

“I know I’m not the first presenter to stand here on this stage and tell you a technology is going to revolutionize your business,” Steinberg said. “ … I’m not going to tell you how to do your business either … But I do know about change. I’ve never seen another technology so quickly upend our industry.”

Steinberg began his talk with a thought experiment. Encouraging us to think about waking up before work, with an alarm that automatically knew to wake us up a bit earlier on this particular day, breakfast prepared and every TV display in the home playing our favorite news program automatically in whatever room we are in. Oh, and a drone shows up with some medicine because our bathroom sink detected we were coming down with a cold!

While this seems very “Back to the Future,” it might not actually be so far off.

“I have never seen a technology that has more potential transform an industry, the way we work and the way we interact than #AI.” – Scott Steinberg during the @CEDIAExpo keynote. #CEDIAExpo #HomeAV #smarthomes @CEDIA pic.twitter.com/0OwTWdn1yp

— rAVe [PUBS] (@rAVePubs) September 7, 2023

In the next few years, Steinberg says we may be able to see things such as self-maintaining housing popping up around a few different big cities. And that’s only the beginning.

He brought up a good example of ChatGPT. It had the amount of users in one month that TikTok had after one year. The exponential growth is so real. The problem with this is, however, that the growth has made the trends of AI not so predictable. As of six months ago, there were 14,700 AI startups — what’s it going to be in another six months?

“You don’t have to be a technologist to see the way this will impact our lives,” Steinberg said.

He closed the keynote with a few final remarks and with a piece of advice: We have two choices: Get onboard or get left behind. Yes, this new frontier can use some oversight and perhaps a little regulation. But we need to go ahead and get informed. No one wants to be a technologist left behind by the latest technology!

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