Baby Boomers Are The Fastest Adopters of Smart Home Tech

Have you ever received a smart home device as a gift? You’re in good company: over half of smart home, consumers were gifted their first device and grew their collection from there.

In a poll of 2,000 US adults with smart devices in their homes — devices that are connected to the internet and can be used to control other things throughout the home or be used as digital assistants — found 54% had their first smart devices gifted or bought for them.

The most popular “first” devices people flocked to were either cameras (18%) or streaming devices (16%). In fact, 45% of people with at least one smart home device said they own a smart camera.

Other popular devices likely to make an appearance in the home are speakers, streaming devices, doorbells and lights.

Half were found to interact with their devices at least once every day and 85% said they were experts with their devices within a week of getting them set up.

The fastest adopters of smart home tech were found to be baby boomers — 66% said they started using their smart home devices daily “straight away.” The slowest adopters: Gen Z, where 46% surprisingly said it takes them at least four days to get acclimated to their devices.

However, Gen Z was likely to have the least amount of opposition to owning smart home devices (63%), while millennials had the most amount of initial opposition (25%).

TOP 7 SMART HOME "NEEDS" FOR DEVICES

• It needs to be easy to install and use - 40%
• It needs to help me keep my family and home safe - 40%
• It needs to be private and secure - 39%
• It needs to last for years - 37%
• It needs to work with other devices in my home - 36%
• It needs to do multiple things - 33%
• It needs to alert me to specific things - 32%