Your refrigerator is becoming your personal shopper with artificial intelligence.
Samsung is rolling out a new wave of AI features that can recognize your voice, update shopping lists, and track ingredients. The company is making the future once projected on the big screen a reality by allowing people to talk to their home appliances.
Features coming to the company’s new appliances this year include software that can recognize the food in your refrigerator, suggest recipes based on what’s available, and add missing ingredients to your Instacart shopping list.
Michael McDermott, Samsung’s executive vice president of consumer electronics, told Business Insider that the technology, called Vision AI, captures the contents of your refrigerator so you don’t have to manually track it.
Modern refrigerators can use large-scale language models to identify specific foods, such as a can of Coke, and display them on a companion app on your phone, so you can check your inventory at home while grocery shopping.
A software update for Samsung’s AI-powered refrigerator, Bespoke AI Family Hub, was first unveiled at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show. Many of our AI capabilities are powered by Google Gemini. Google did not respond to a request for comment.
Users can check their food supply without opening the refrigerator. Jordan Hart/Business Insider
These features come at a cost. AI-powered refrigerators start at $2,799, and the Smart Series starts at $1,349.
More advanced AI functions, Improving food recognition, etc. is scheduled to be rolled out in May.
Samsung’s AI-powered oven has a camera that recognizes the food you put inside and recommends cooking times. You can also record videos for food influencers who want to see the food up close.
Powered by AI, the wall oven suggests recipes and cooking times based on the ingredients. Jordan Hart/Business Insider
Competitors such as LG are also incorporating AI into their home appliances. LG said its AI home appliances are made to make daily tasks easier by learning users’ habits and automating key functions.
Samsung also has its own virtual assistant, Bixby, and is building it into its home appliances. The idea is to provide a companion that recognizes specific users and creates a more customized experience, McDermott said.
For example, Voice ID can customize your calendar and reminders based on who’s speaking.
The goal is to develop technology that blends into the background while making everyday life easier, McDermott said.