AI And Hospitality Create Future Home Experience

Philippe Ziade was born in Lebanon. He grew up there during the civil war and spent much of his impressionable childhood years in bomb shelters.

That experience is the foundation for his passion for creating a comfortable home, for using the far stretches of our imagination to create custom experiences, for letting technology serve those experiences to make them all unique.

His TEDx talk features how and why we should embrace technology and AI in our home environment to make our homes a more personal, comfortable, convenient place.

Now, Ziade is the founder and CEO of hospitality company Otonomus and runs the AI-powered home building company, LIVV Homes. These two companies have become the physical realizations of his pursuit of the ideal home experience.

Smart Home Hospitality

Hospitality has evolved in recent years with the introduction of home rental services like Airbnb that create a unique experience, but like traditional hotel chains, also leave a gap in experience.

“The downside from Airbnb is consistency with the service,” said Ziade. “When you see it’s not what you like, it’s too late, you are already there. With Airbnb, you aren’t looking for a flag or a brand, you want value, the right price. With a hotel, it’s the brand and you know what you are going to get with the brand.”

His new hotel concept, Otonomus, uses AI to create personalization and bridge the gap between Airbnb-type rentals and big chain hotels.

“Every time there is a new booking, AI can recreate the space to be personalized,” he said. “It’s attribute-based shopping. You pick room types at a price. We offer rooms that are limitless and you design what you want and AI will do it for you. You want a room away from noise, you can have a room away from noise, close to the pool. Just like airline tickets. You buy a ticket with nothing, you want to order food, add baggage. That’s what we have done. Lowered the base price with nothing and then we serve people who want to add on.”

He describes four phases of the customer journey – booking, onboarding, the stay, and offboarding. The onboarding starts when a room is booked, which is a gamified conversation with a guest to gather data to help Otonomus understand preferences. Throughout the process, the user is rewarded with things like free drinks, which in return rewards Otonomus with their social media handles and the approval to use them.

The hotel’s AI will create an avatar for each guest that is a digital twin of the individual’s preferences. Ziade says that this level of personalization can’t be created by the current hotel chains because they have developed static buckets to group users into reward levels, like silver, gold, and platinum.

After onboarding, comes the stay. During the stay, the AI-enriched environment tracks the guest’s behavior.

“It is so advanced, it knows how much you are going to spend and how,” Ziade said. “We track all the lighting, temperature, coffee. So, the next time you come, it’s like we know you. When you check out, that’s usually when it ends, but it is the start of your next journey. The more you stay, the better the experience gets.”

Other advanced features of the AI include tracking energy use per guest. If a guest consumes below average usage, then a discount is reflected on the bill.

As is the case with all AI, data is being shared, so Ziade is adamant at pointing out that privacy is critical and that the guest is always in control. A guest can opt out at any moment.

Elevated Home Experience

AI can elevate the home experience with a futuristic, hospitality focus.

Ziade also is involved in a home building company as founder of LIVV Homes. The homes leverage AI to create the hospitality feel, a hands-free experience based on personal preference.

The online shopping for a LIVV Home starts with designs that are net zero. Additional options are selected by the homeowner in the online process that can arrive at a final design within 15 minutes. The cost is updated as selections are made, so every option can be evaluated by the dollar value.

“The house comes with a brain and it has the same evolution of the human brain,” said Ziade. “It has all the logic that people use to code, but you don’t have to do that because the house will develop that logic on its own.”

For instance, water heaters won’t be heating up water when you aren’t home. If the sun is out and the air conditioning is on, the house will command itself to put the shades down to regulate the temperature better without spending energy.

“It also is sustaining your health,” he said. “We developed a sensor that sends notifications on the vibration of the voice when you are developing diabetes or Alzheimer’s. Then it will trigger you to get checked. The house can minimize depression.”

It also knows when the residents don’t sleep well based on the vibration of their voice and can help improve sleep with external lighting and temperature triggers.

LIVV Homes opened its first 84-home, luxury community in Las Vegas.

AI-Informed Affordable Home Experience

Part of the future of housing is finding ways to be more affordable. AC Future focuses on developing smart, sustainable, and flexible homes to do just that.

The California-based company has introduced several models of AI-informed homes that will go on the market after 2026 with a 400-square-foot model starting at $98,000. This model goes on a foundation, and the company is introducing two other models that are mobile, one as a trailer and the other as a drivable home.

While at a moderate range of $245 per square foot, the home has cutting edge design and technology. Plus, homeowners get additional cost savings because the homes are self-sufficient, featuring a solar array, water recovery, atmospheric water generation, solar water heating, and water recycling.

The company leverages AI to function as a smart home assistant that can cater to people’s living styles, much like in the hospitality feel that Ziade is creating in his hotel and homes. AC Future also sees the AI evolving to give intelligence to different components in the living space.

The design by Italian group Pininfarina makes 400 square feet feel like double that. The main living area can shift between a lounge, an office, or an additional bedroom. The front expands to provide a more living space or a workstation. The bedroom also has extendable wardrobe options.

The product is designed to be an accessory dwelling unit in a backyard, or used in a larger development, as a vacation property, or even as emergency housing.

Where Home Experience Is Headed

In an ideal world, the home experience will continue to be personalized, but not risk privacy. It will be comfortable, safe, healthy and connected, but probably most importantly, it needs to be affordable.

As we navigate the evolving world of AI, there will be opportunities to create efficiencies in each part of the process to drive forward all of the goals of the home experience. We’re heading into exciting times.