Welcoming AI into our homes

23rd March 2023

Civica’s Alex Oldman explores how the Internet of Things is already making a big difference in social housing – but there’s still some way to go

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is proven to deliver real benefits and protect residents from harm using pattern cognition and augmenting reality. While the UK government announces plans to introduce ‘Awaabs Law’ into the forthcoming ‘Regulation of Social Housing’ Bill, technology already exists to protect vulnerable households from hazards such as damp and mould.

So why has it not already been widely deployed?

There are examples of early adopters taking action. Flagship Housing is two years into its programme to deploy 20,000 Switchee devices to homes across the east of England by 2030. These devices monitor the home environment, harvesting data and looking for patterns. The software then adjusts the heating system, saving the household money and protecting the building and residents against risk of damp and mould. Pre-emptive boiler breakdown alerting also improves Flagship’s repairs service and customer satisfaction. AI Learning can be used to determine deployment priorities based on occupant need, built form and other human-determined factors.

Kingdom Housing has implemented Visual AI in the form of Augmented Reality (AR) which overlays digital information with the real world. The organisation deployed an AR solution during the Covid pandemic to provide remote guidance for responsive repairs. The solution allows repairs operatives to provide a hands-overlay in an app to show how to resolve a problem.

Visual AI gives software the skill to scan, identify and classify objects from video or still image sources. This allows solutions that can recognise and understand an image they are being presented with. For example, using Visual AI to inspect photos provided by residents for evidence of damp can provide protection or drone surveys to identify problems with roofing that might be invisible to the naked eye. And a drone can survey hundreds of houses per day from the air saving time and efficiencies.

Meanwhile, text-based AI enriches the customer digital experience by allowing searches based on semantic analysis and natural language processing to improve interaction with searches and chatbots.

Functional AI can detect a problem by comparing an actual working pattern with a standard one. A good example of this is plant room monitoring, where the acoustic signature is first learned and then anomalies are found by algorithms to find faults in bearings. Preventative maintenance can then be scheduled to prevent downtime from unplanned breakdowns.

It is clear that organisations must be very clear on their policies before deploying any type of AI. As Terry Pratchett once said, “Real stupidity beats Artificial intelligence every time.” Huge data capture and processing must be balanced with data privacy. Automated decision making must be aware of the bias that might not consider race, age, or gender. But with all these considerations taken into account, it’s clear that change is coming – and we need to be ready for it.

Alex Oldman is Client Relationship Manager, Housing at Civica