Smart homes: which IoT products do Italians actually use? – Sicom Testing, Electronic product testing

The Italian home automation market has surpassed the one billion euro threshold in 2025, marking an eleven per cent increase year-on-year and confirming the progressive integration of smart technologies into everyday life. However, beyond the figures that characterise the industry, a reality emerges that deserves the attention of stakeholders: that of the gap between devices purchased and those actually used by Italian families. If almost sixty-four percent of our compatriots declare they own at least one smart device, barely fifty-one percent of these have actually gone on to connect the products they purchased to their home networks.

Safety as the dominant priority

The analysis of the domestic smart market's composition reveals a landscape heavily dominated by a specific category of solutions, namely those dedicated to Home security – including video cameras, door sensors, video doorbells and connected locks – which absorbs the thirty per cent of the entire sector, amounting to three hundred and five million euros, registering particularly robust growth (of twenty-two per cent) compared to the previous year. The fact that this segment continues to expand so significantly attests to how security remains a non-negotiable priority, even in a context where other innovations – such as the automation of energy consumption or home comfort – represent equally relevant objectives.

Small electrical appliances and widespread automation

Beyond perimeter security, Italian families are showing increasing interest in Connected appliances, which represent twenty per cent of the overall turnover – equivalent to one hundred and ninety-five million euros – driven primarily by small smart appliances equipped with advanced functionalities. This segment includes very diverse realities, ranging from smart vacuum cleaners to remotely controlled coffee machines, from refrigerators capable of monitoring consumption to ovens equipped with sensors that optimise cooking cycles. The growth of this category testifies to how the IoT is penetrating domestic environments with a ever-increasing capillarity. This way, the regular consumer is no longer faced with individual, isolated devices, but rather with real ecosystems where the coordination between multiple functions allows for previously unimaginable levels of efficiency.

Energy efficiency and consumption awareness

The interest towards the Energy saving currently corresponds to a market share of fourteen per cent, equivalent to one hundred and forty-two million euros. This category includes smart thermostats, thermostatic valves on individual radiators, and climate control systems that use learning algorithms to adapt to occupants' habits. Although the segment has not yet reached the proportions of the previous two segments, its trajectory is particularly interesting for those operating in the manufacturing sector for controller components, sensors, and user interfaces, given that thermal efficiency represents at the same time a European regulatory imperative and a budgetary requirement for families and public administrations alike.

Smart speaker and the democratisation of voice control

Smart speakers represent a further lever for transformation, to which the market attributes eleven percent of global value, or approximately one hundred and ten million euros. These devices, which function simultaneously as a voice command centre and a connectivity hub for coordinating other home systems, have proven to be fundamental for a more widespread adoption of home automation for an audience generally less familiar with technology. Their function is not merely audio playback or access to virtual assistants; they are indeed proposed as of the aggregate elements of an entire ecosystem, thanks to which the domestic user can issue commands in natural language and receive immediate responses without the need for interaction with complex interfaces. This democratisation of access – if one can call it that – has allowed a the penetration of home automation into population segments that would otherwise have been excluded from this revolution, as they lack the necessary technical skills to interact with sophisticated mobile applications or highly configurable control panels.

The critical gap between ownership and actual use

As anticipated, a relevant piece of data concerns the behaviour of Italians in relation to effective device connection, as, if sixty-four percent own at least one smart device, only fifty-one percent have actually connected it. This thirteen percentage point gap reveals a disconnect between the purchase intention and the realisation of the promised value, reflecting probably a combination of factors such as perceived installation complexity, the need for stable home connectivity, fears about privacy concerns. For the component manufacturer, this reality clearly defines the need to invest in user experience, accessible documentation and customer support, factors that accompany the user in the 'last mile” of technological adoption.

Artificial intelligence as a new paradigm

The sector's evolution in 2025 and 2026 was marked by the strong entry of artificial intelligence into the value propositions offered to consumers. These are no longer simple automations based on predetermined rules, but rather of systems capable of learning from the habits of a home's inhabitants and adapting autonomously in order to maximise comfort and energy efficiency. This element allows contemporary devices to interpret the meaning of human intentions and adapt to variations in behavioural patterns, thereby creating a user experience that, while technologically sophisticated, proves to be extraordinarily intuitive and natural from the end-user's perspective.
It emerges clearly, therefore, how the integration of IoT and artificial intelligence represent the decisive front of competition in the coming period. It is not a matter of technological fashion, but of areallocation of economic value towards those actors capable of providing qualitatively superior user experiences through the use of sophisticated algorithms.

Per capita spending and possible growth margins

There Italian per capita spending in the smart home segment – amounting to around €16.9 per inhabitant – there still remains below the European Union average, which stands at €34.2, a situation that presents both a challenge and an opportunity. On the one hand, we find the Italian market still in a developmental phase requiring significant investment in consumer education, on the other hand, we must consider how every increase in the penetration of small population segments would equate to tens of thousands of new hardware and firmware units to supply. For Italian and European electronics supply chain operators, future competition will be measured not only on the technical ability to design innovative components, but on a more comprehensive capacity to build ecosystems where simplicity of use, reliability, interoperability, and privacy will meet.