AI appliances are making you lazy – why you do (and don’t) need AI in your kitchen

Much to many people’s dismay – including my own – AI is slowly but surely becoming the norm in many households. AI features come in many forms, including the voice assistant in your smart speaker or mapping and navigation in your robot vacuum cleaner.

More recently, AI has expanded into kitchen appliances, including fridges, ovens, air fryers and coffee machines. Depending on the brand or device you’re using, this can be as simple as an appliance with app control so you can use your machine remotely, to more advanced where AI can adjust your settings to chill or cook food more accurately.

While AI appliances are still considered a luxury for many, more and more brands are introducing AI to their range of kitchen gadgets. Personally, I think AI appliances are just making us lazier, despite these features offering some value around the home.

How AI appliances add value to your home

How AI is used in appliances varies from product to product. In most cases, AI is integrated in the appliances’ hardware or software, and is designed to take care of household tasks for you so you can get on with other things.

AI laundry appliances are a great example of this, but it’s still a ‘newer’ way to use AI that’s only really been explored by the likes of LG and Samsung, two brands that are way ahead in the AI game. AI is used in washing machines and tumble dryers via sensors that weigh your laundry and its soil level before adjusting the machine’s cycle and dispensing the right amount of detergent.

Not only does this ensure you’re washing your clothes efficiently, but it keeps your energy and water usage down to help you save money in the long term. This is another handy use case for AI appliances, especially for laundry and fridges, as AI tracks your habits and makes changes in accordance with your usage.

Speaking of fridges, a smart fridge with AI features is the only appliance I’d actually consider adding to my home. Most smart fridges have built-in cameras that recognise food and monitor your fridge’s contents.

Whether it's via the fridges’ accompanying app or the fridge door’s touchscreen, the AI works to track your food’s expiration dates and will warn you when something is going off. It can have some failings – pre-made meals in tupperware are trickier to monitor than other foods – but AI smart fridges cut down food waste, give you recipe ideas, and can adjust your fridge’s cooling during peak usage.

Are AI appliances actually needed?

With a lot of kitchen appliances, there’s a certain amount of manual operation that still needs to be done, like putting food on a baking tray to put in your oven or selecting a pre-set programme on your air fryer.

Simply put, not every appliance needs a Wi-Fi connection, a voice assistant or AI features. Where I think AI has truly lost the plot is in ovens. As mentioned, there’s still some manual intervention needed to use your oven, but there are some newer models which use internal cameras to scan your food and adjust the oven’s timing and temperatures.

Unless you’re cooking something very simple, I worry about how accurate your cooking will come out. What’s more, by the time you’ve prepped your food and put it into the oven, how much more taxing is it to switch your oven on and set the temperature? It’s hardly saving you very much time, and feels like something that won’t be used very often once the initial appeal has worn off.

Many AI appliances are luxury upgrades. As you can imagine, a smart AI fridge freezer is going to set you back at least £2,000, if not more. In my opinion, if your current appliances are still doing a job well done, you don’t need an AI version, and it’ll set you back a fair amount of money anyway, despite their ongoing financial savings.