A new survey finds that the Internet of Things (IoT) we know now could one day become an acronym with another name: the Intimacy of Things.

In a survey commissioned by Intel Corp., it was revealed that consumers are expecting the Internet of Things to play a huge role in their intimate relationships.

The survey was conducted by TNS (Kantar Group Company) from July 16-20, 2015 among a nationally representative sample of 2,500 U.S. adults, ages 18 and older, with a margin of error of plus or minus 1.9 percentage points.

The survey respondents were quite optimistic in their views of the role IoT will play in the future, including ways connected lifestyles can reduce workloads, improve personal relationships, lessen stress, and an increase leisure time. Nearly 68 percent of the respondents are confident smart homes will be as commonplace as smartphones within 10 years. The survey also revealed a growing interest in adopting smart home technologies in some shape or form with 71 percent stating that there will be at least one smart home device in every home in America by 2025.

What a smart home means for consumers

We’ve all heard how smart and connected appliances can help us save up on our electricity consumption, but the survey reveals that consumers believe it can do more than that.

More time

With more everyday objects being connected and more of their actions being automated, consumers believe that it will give them more time to do the things that really matter to them. Fifty-eight percent of the respondents believe that smart homes will improve their personal lives by giving them more quality time with family (25 percent), more “me time” (22 percent), more time for travel (13 percent), more time to spend with friends (13 percent), and a decrease in marital stress (10 percent).

More money

Aside from saving money with the reduction of energy consumption, respondents believe the connected home will open new avenues to earn money through actions like willingly sharing behavioral data.

Fifty-four percent of respondents stated that they are willing to sell data regarding daily home habits to companies. Seven in 10 Americans believe companies should offer discounts for data, yet only 4 in 10 would grant access. Those who would willingly share data stated that they should get incentives in the form of money (43 percent), tax incentives to offset install costs (78 percent), tax credits for smart home adoption (73 percent), and coupons or discounts (69 percent).

Connected + Virtual

Those who are open to installing smart home devices are also open to installing more automation technology in their homes such as virtual assistants, virtual housekeepers or virtual babysitters. The survey revealed that American are interested in a virtual housekeeper (29 percent), personal medical tracking system (26 percent), virtual companion (11 percent of men), and virtual babysitter (10 percent of millennials).

The tradeoff

The respondents know that though the connected world has its benefits, it also has a price. Eighty-three percent of Intel’s survey participants stated that they would consider using some kind of smart home device, but they also noted some concerns surrounding the future smart home such as hacking (70 percent), maintenance fees (67 percent), product glitches (64 percent), connection failure (63 percent), and password issues (45 percent).

 Intel’s new market opportunity

The results presented above is a part of a two-part survey with the first part released in November 2015. The survey revealed that 78 percent of Americans believe that smart homes will be as commonplace as smartphones within 10 years, but for that to become a reality, the industry needs to focus on future-proofing the infrastructure supporting the smart home ecosystem, simplifying connectivity, moving towards a consensus on industry standards, and realizing that the leap from a connected home to a smart home requires data insights from multiple devices to deliver value to the homeowner.

To better understand what consumers need in a connected home, as well as to accelerate development in this ares, Intel has built a tiny smart home which is an organic lab created for experimenting, connecting and hacking existing and future connected home technologies. Intel will continue to evolve the lab within the next 12-18 months to test and and unveil new use cases and experiences.

You can read the results of the survey here (pdf).

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