The More You Know, the Less You Want to Rely on It – Consumer preferences for AI-based health monitoring in smart home systems

Smart home technology powered by artificial intelligence (AI) can detect anomalies and make emergency calls, enabling residents to live safely and independently. However, its adoption for health monitoring remains limited. This study aimed to explore consumer pref-erences for AI-based smart home technology for health monitoring and identify predictors such as sociodemographic variables, AI literacy, and technology affinity. A sample of 300 participants (57% female, aged 18–69) completed a choice-based conjoint analysis (CBCA). Participants evaluated 15 choice sets describing smart home variants based on cost, location, emergency detection rate, type of sensor, and data processing. Cost was the most important attribute (Relative Importance [RI] = 41%), followed by emergency detection rate (RI = 19%), data processing (RI = 14%), and location (RI = 14%). The type of sensor was the least important attribute (RI = 9%). While most expected correlations between sociodemographic variables and attribute importances were not observed, a significant correlation between self-reported health status and emergency detection rate was found (p < .01). Interestingly, 61% of participants preferred AI over human involvement in data processing, but logistic regres-sion revealed that participants with higher AI literacy were less likely to prefer AI over hu-man involvement (p < .05). These findings highlight the need to align smart home develop-ment with user preferences, emphasizing cost-effectiveness. Additionally, AI literacy plays an important role in technology adoption in the context of AI-based smart home technology. Further research is needed to understand and address the reluctance to adopt AI for health monitoring.