What Are Smart Assistants?
Tech advancements that will give you peace of mind. And, ease of use like Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, Google Assistant, and Microsoft Cortana. These are some of our smart assistants.
The Future is Here with Smart Assistants
As the days go by, numerous technological advancements happen worldwide. This is all in the hopes to make our day-to-day lives easier and better. There are smart innovations that we incorporate into our daily routine. And, as we continue using home-owning gadgets and tools, we continue to yearn for more convenience through technology. And, our people continue to strive and work hard to produce these things for future generations.
Tech Evolution
Technological evolution helped us in many ways professionally and personally. We have what we call “Smart Assistants” which are devices that we “speak” to and “talk back”. This is a response to a question or command from us. Smart devices like Amazon’s Alexa, Google’s Assistant, and Apple’s Siri can help us in our personal and professional lives. They could serve as our assistants except for the fact that they could not run errands for us. But they could remind us to go to the grocery when needed.
These smart assistants are compatible.
And, can sync into your other smart devices. This allows for control or communication through your smartphones. And, if you have elderly people around, these are user-friendly. They can just “speak” to it and it will do its job. You can hook your smart assistants with your Smart Home which adds value to your home.
What can Smart Assistants do exactly?
It is in their job description to serve as your assistant. You could ask these smart assistants to remind you of something. Or, ask them a question and they will be the ones to do the searching for answers for you.
They could be synced into your other smart devices.
One of the leading products in the market for smart assistants would be Amazon’s Alexa smart speaker. Since there are many things that you could use Alexa for. Alexa could be the command center of your home or office making your personal and professional life easier.
Our families always come first in our lives, especially our kids.
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What Are Smart Assistants? They Help Us Work Better
Starting with the professional aspect of your life. Given a situation where you are busy, you tend to forget your schedules. And, the things you should do, you could even forget to check on your to-do list.
Calendar
If you sync Alexa with your digital calendar, it could remind you that you have a meeting at 2:30 in the afternoon. Or, you have to pick up a client at 8:00 in the morning. Alexa could serve as your reminder and alarm in one. It goes both ways. If you set an alarm on your phone it will automatically sync with Alexa’s system. If you just command Alexa to set an alarm for you at a certain time, it will also reflect on your smartphone.
Language Translation
Another thing that Alexa could help you in the office with is when you have foreign clients. You don’t have to go through the hassle of actually learning the language just to talk to your client. You could just whip up your phone or Alexa to translate the language your client is speaking – real time. Alexa as a smart assistant and speaker has a two-way audio system. It can “listen” to your client and it can also “speak” to your client in his native language.
Currency Conversion
If there is money involved and needs currency conversions, Alexa can do the math for you accurately. It will use the current conversion rate rather than relying on other error-prone calculations. If you want to do your work hands-free, you can command Alexa to place calls on your behalf. This way you can multitask more effectively and increase your productivity.
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More Than A Schedule Reminder
Personally, Alexa is more than just a reminder robot. You can enjoy blasting off music even if you’re not holding your phone. With just one command Alexa can play music for you. Or, turn on series or movies that you want to watch.
Alexa Recommends
If you are in a pinch and do not know where to eat or where to go, you can ask Alexa for recommendations. And, Alexa could give you the best results based on your location and preference.
Grocery
Another example of Alexa’s use would be for grocery shopping. Especially nowadays wherein people do not have the luxury to go out of their houses. And, do the shopping on their own. With just one command, Alexa can bring together the groceries you need. And, order them off wherever you want through Amazon.
NHS Approved
There could also be times wherein you get sick. And, you are alone while your loved ones are at work or school. It is approved by the National Health Service. As Amazon teamed up with them, Alexa could answer your questions referenced from the National Health Service’s official health guidelines.
Planning For Your Health
In talks of health, if you are on a diet or planning a workout routine you can ask Alexa to whip up a workout routine for you. Or if you do have a workout app, you can just command Alexa to open it for you. And, start working out. You do not even have to hold your phone. Or, touch it to know what workout to do next. Alexa initially is a smart speaker, it could just play the next routine for you.
Fitness Apps
Alexa could provide you coaching in every step that the fitness app has or if you want to see it visually, Alexa could describe it for you or you can hook it on a monitor and let Alexa play a video for you to watch or stream while working out. Again, this is where you can use Alexa as your digital DJ. Turn the music up while you are working out to feel it.
AI Learning
Alexa’s algorithm can recognize patterns depending on your commands and searches. This makes Alexa more personalized and can curate tailored results just perfect for your preference and taste. Alexa gets to know your routines. And, if you are a homeowner wanting to maintain the value (or even add value to your home) it would be best to incorporate your smart devices at home with Alexa.
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Advanced Home Use of Smart Home Assistant
Imagine this, you walk up to your home, and you are exhausted from work. You do not even have the energy to adjust the thermostat or open the lights. With Alexa’s technology, it could recognize the pattern of what time you usually get home. And, turn on the lights and adjust thermostats for you.
Smart Use Of Smart Home Hub
No, you are not being lazy, you are just optimizing Alexa’s use and maximizing the comfort of your home. Insurance-wise you could convert your home into a smart home. And, establish home automation making your household a little more “futuristic” and reliant on technology than other houses.
Aside from the entertainment and leisure that Alexa can offer, you could be wondering if Alexa can help in home management.
The answer would be yes. There are “Home Center” or “Home Hub” apps that can use Alexa’s features, also called skills. These Home Center apps not only help with your home maintenance. But, they can also help in home and insurance management. Some Home Center apps provide homeowners with a visual aid regarding tips and tricks about how to protect their home and the people inside it.
The helpful tips on these apps have wide coverage. It starts with accident prevention tips. How to prepare for an emergency. And, how to maintain your assets in your home or even add value to your house. These visual aids can be infographics or embedded videos on the home center app.
Technology is vulnerable to cyber security threats.
Check out this article about how to Protect Your Smart Home From Cyberattacks
Smart Home Hub
Homeowners can treat these home center apps as a checklist of what to do to maintain their house. Since these home center apps can be integrated with smart systems. They could also recognize patterns and create customized and personalized tips depending on the habits and routines it picks up.
If you are confused about where you can use Home Center apps, here’s a list we have curated to help you optimize smart home systems:
If you are a first-time homeowner or first-time user of the Home Center app, you could use it to answer your questions about owning a house. With Alexa’s skills, it can answer basic to complex questions and search the world wide web for you. You can use the app to ask queries like how often you should clean a piece of certain home equipment. Or, what would be the most optimal position for a space heater. Aside from asking a question, first-timers can use the app to also search for tips. And, best ways or practices regarding home owning to protect your home. And, make it ready and prepared for any accident that may happen.
Intelligent Machine Learning
The home center learns patterns. It may produce thorough, tailored home maintenance advice. If you need to know what portion of your home needs cleaning, the home center can record when you last cleaned it. Remind you when to clean again. These tips are customizable. Home center applications can be linked to homeowners’ insurance. Insurance firms are using technology to help clients manage their coverage. Home center applications help clients examine policies. The home center app can also handle invoicing. It shows the homeowner when their bill is due, lets them seek information about their insurance policies or accounts, and more. The home center app may also remind you to pay or renew your insurance. You won’t have to run to the insurance agency. You could just ask Alexa at home.
Alexa has many skills as a smart assistant. And, if your home center mobile application can be integrated with Alexa or another smart assistant’s system it would be a very big help to you both in maintenance and management inside your home.
24/7 Support
If you are having a hard time adding these skills or features to your phone or home center application, you can just ask your smart assistant to do it for you. In terms of home management, you can hook your online calendar with your smart app and it will help you not just remind you of bills payment due but also remind you of holidays and weather reports so you to prepare your heating systems or cooling systems whichever you would be needing on that certain season or weather.
Security
As for security, if your smart assistant is already hooked up to your smart devices you can just command it to show you the view of your security cameras or easily pull up a recording from a certain date if you need to look at something; this could act as your security camera, baby camera or pet camera, it all depends on where you want to use it. Alexa’s job is just to listen to your commands and answer your queries.
Still Unsure?
If you are hesitating if these smart assistants and home center applications pose a threat to your privacy, there are several tips on the internet on how to keep your smart devices secure both physically and in the cyber world.
Learn how Smart Home Technology helps to ensure you have a safe home, family, or business.
Read the full blog post here: Smart Home Technology and Cybercrime.
Cyber Security
Hacking is prone to smart home devices; these devices usually come with a default password, make it a habit to change it regularly, advisable 30 to 60 days, and make it strong. It does not have to be complicated. Make sure that it passes the standards of a strong password. And, avoid using passwords that other people can easily guess such as dates of birth or anniversaries. A quick tip on how to create a strong password is for it to have:
- At least 8 to 15 characters
- Make the characters alphanumeric
- Both lowercase and uppercase
- Special characters
In this way, hackers would have a hard time cracking your smart devices.
Make sure you have good antivirus software installed on your pc or mac. Internet protection that covers multiple home devices. Ensuring that the program covers mobile phones, tablets, and other smart home devices with protection from malware, ransomware, phishing, and other cyber attacks. Other good features to look for are:
- device data cleanup
- login protection
- hides your browsing with a built-in VPN.
Installation
Home Center applications need Alexa installed. Alexa’s voice command features must be added to home center applications for homeowners to utilize her. All the above operations may be done without touching the phone; homeowners can just issue a command and Alexa will respond on behalf of the home center app.
This optimizes the home center app, Alexa, and smart home devices. There are various smart assistants for phones, but most mobile apps incorporate Amazon’s Alexa. Amazon provides shopping and groceries, and Alexa can do them for you.
Managing Your Insurance with Smart Assistants
When it comes to managing your house and home insurance, most agencies make it easy for their clients by using the technology that we already have. Aside from portals online, integrating their accounts on home center apps makes it easier for clients to sync their policies with the assets that they already have at home. This makes cross-checking with your insurance policy less hassle. These home center apps also provide homeowners with other contact options for their insurance agencies, there are home center applications that give contact details on their application so homeowners could reach out to their agencies through the app itself.
Home Maintenance Management
It could be hard having to manage a house alone, but physically managing it is not all there is. You would need to manage the bills of the utilities that you use inside the house, not to mention the installations and maintenance of the smart home systems that you have at home – or even not the smart home gadgets, even just the regular ones which require more tending and maintenance. But thanks to technology and our generation’s innovators, you can automate tedious routines and monotonous patterns at home.
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General Convenience
It started out with just our phones reminding us through text notifications or alarms, but now with smart assistants these reminders could actually talk to us and remind us to do tasks such as taxes, bills, grocery shopping, and even laundry. And, it does not stop just there. You can add these smart assistants to mobile or web applications that we use every day. Making it easier for us to be reminded of things that we need to do. And sometimes, they just do it for us as a part of our routine that they have learned through patterns that we associate the smart devices and systems with.
What Are Smart Assistants? They Give You Peace Of Mind!
Homeowners deserve to have peace of mind. If there is a chance for homeowners to automate any task that they have, they should just grab it. Having a peaceful mind is priceless, integrating smart home systems into your home may need some adjustment but it will only take a short while then if you are used to it, everything will just sail smoothly in your home. You would have one or more things less to worry about since these smart home devices will do the job for you and you can just focus on other things and increase your productivity.
Aside from eliminating the monotonous and tedious tasks that homeowners have, smart home devices such as Amazon’s Alexa and home center mobile applications provide homeowners with the help they never knew they needed. As busy as they are, homeowners tend to neglect or forget simple things that need to be attended to in their homes.
Or sometimes, homeowners simply just do not know that they need to do a certain thing to keep their homes safe and secure.
We Can Help!
Being on top of things is hard, but it should not be. With home center apps and smart assistants, homeowners could manage and maintain everything accordingly. Feel free to seek advice from our independent agents if you do plan on getting upgrades or smart installations in your home.
Advantage Insurance Solutions is a top independent insurance agency in Denver, Colorado. Let our team be your insurance advantage. Call or text us today at (720) 221-8168.