Samsung Electronics Expands One-Stop AI Home Appliance Management Service 'Homecare Manager'

[Asia Economy Reporter Suyeon Woo] Samsung Electronics unveiled its 2021 model 'HomeCare Manager' service on the 21st, which diagnoses whether home appliances are malfunctioning using artificial intelligence (AI) and helps users manage them on their own.

HomeCare Manager is a 'one-stop self-care' service based on the SmartThings application that diagnoses abnormalities in home appliances, provides instructions on how to address them, and offers services such as consumer usage pattern analysis, consumable replacement notifications, and purchase link guidance all in one place.

The 2021 HomeCare Manager not only diagnoses malfunctions in a total of 11 products including kitchen appliances like refrigerators and dishwashers, as well as air conditioners, but also analyzes various problems to provide causes and solutions.

In the case of refrigerators, it detects abnormal signs by comparing internal and external temperature trends and notifies the user if any are found. For dishwashers, depending on the product status, it intuitively informs the user's smartphone with diagnostic messages such as 'Water supply is not smooth,' 'Heater inspection is needed,' and 'Leakage detected.' Additionally, for washing machines, during winter, it provides messages like 'The drainage area may freeze due to low temperatures' along with guides such as 'Carefully detach the frozen drainage hose or filter without breaking it, then thaw it in warm water at 50?60 degrees Celsius.'

Especially, the self-care guides are also provided in video format, making it easy to apply even for non-experts. If the user cannot resolve the issue on their own, the service connects them to a service center. Besides various diagnostics, it also offers cleaning reminders, filter lifespan information and replacement timing predictions, consumable replacement alerts, and purchase links for convenience.

A Samsung Electronics model is introducing the 2021 version of the 'Home Care Manager' app service at the Samsung Digital Plaza Gangnam Main Store, which diagnoses appliance malfunctions using artificial intelligence (AI) and helps users take action and manage the devices themselves. Photo by Samsung Electronics

With the recent increase in preference for non-face-to-face services, the number of HomeCare Manager users has grown significantly. According to Samsung, the global number of HomeCare Manager users reached 1.4 million as of the end of September this year, tripling in just one year. Among them, 610,000 users are domestic.

Samsung Electronics has increased the number of diagnosable items through HomeCare Manager from 62 last year to 202 this year, more than tripling, and plans to expand it to about 400 items by the first half of next year. Since its first launch in Korea in August 2019, HomeCare Manager is currently available in 20 countries including the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Australia, and New Zealand, and plans to expand its service area to 40 countries including Latin America and the Middle East by the end of this year.

Yumi Young, Executive Vice President of Samsung Electronics' Home Appliance Business Division, said, "As preference for non-face-to-face services increases, we expect the use of HomeCare Manager to grow further. We will expand the one-stop self-care service based on SmartThings to more countries to provide Samsung Electronics' uniquely convenient home appliance management experience."