7 IoT Trends Shaping Smart Homes and Buildings in 2026

Over the past years, the Internet of Things (IoT) has made our lives more connected and automated. Advances in connectivity, edge intelligence, and interoperability have all accelerated adoption across homes, buildings, and industrial environments, while evolving standards are helping to bring greater consistency and security to connected systems. 

Looking ahead, the next wave of IoT innovation will focus less on adding devices and more on making connected environments smarter, more autonomous, and easier to manage. Here are seven key trends expected to shape the IoT landscape in 2026.

1. Intelligent Energy Management in Homes and Offices 

International regulations and efforts to reduce carbon footprints, along with increases in energy costs, are driving homes and buildings to be more energy-efficient. This requires intelligent energy orchestration with the electric grid, home energy generators, storage systems, and major appliances all communicating using a common language and working seamlessly to optimize energy consumption. 

For example, a tumble dryer may delay its cycle if the solar panels are struggling to generate energy and the grid is under heavy demand. The Matter smart home protocol is bringing this vision closer to reality by giving energy-management systems a secure, interoperable protocol that allows devices to intelligently and autonomously manage energy usage throughout the home.

While Matter is accelerating interoperability in residential environments, standards such as KNX IoT are playing a similarly important role in enabling interoperability across commercial building automation ecosystems.

2. AI/ML Will Drive Increasingly Intelligent Smart Homes and Buildings

Smart homes and buildings are becoming increasingly efficient, driven by advances in AI and ML. This includes a shift to edge AI, where hardware and software innovations will increase efficiency for devices running AI/ML locally.

With edge AI, the AI model runs directly on a device, such as a camera, sensor, or gateway, instead of sending data to the cloud for processing. This, in turn, results in faster responses, lower bandwidth use, lower power consumption, and improved privacy as data stays local to the device.

The key to edge AI devices is reliable wireless connectivity. Wireless technologies such as Wi-Fi and Thread will enable cloud connectivity and device-to-device communication. Communication protocols such as Matter, KNX IoT, and Dali+ will bring improved compatibility and interoperability, enabling seamless edge AI device communication and integration within smart home and building ecosystems.

3. Thread Will Power More Reliable and Smarter Homes 

Truly autonomous homes rely on devices such as sensors, buttons, and switches that need to last for years on a single battery. The Thread networking protocol brings low-power, mesh networking to Matter- and KNX IoT-enabled devices. Using Thread, a smart sensor can last for years on a single coin-cell battery and have robust connectivity from Thread’s self-healing mesh network. 

Thread 1.4 delivers several enhancements, including a standardized way to share network credentials with new devices and border routers, allowing them to all join a single Thread network. It also supports extending Thread networks using Wi-Fi and Ethernet, making networks more robust. This flexibility will make Thread even more popular in 2026, allowing devices to benefit from multiple ecosystems and enabling smart homes to be more connected, automated, and energy-efficient.

4. Wireless Technologies Will Make Buildings Smarter, Greener, and Safer

Wireless connectivity will continue to bring new levels of intelligence and efficiency in 2026. Wirelessly connected sensors, thermostats, and other IoT devices, combined with edge intelligence, will allow existing buildings to be transformed into smart buildings that can efficiently optimize energy usage. This could include everything from closing window shades when a room is empty to automatically adjusting HVAC usage. 

Technologies such as Thread with DALI+ are enabling building systems to work together more seamlessly, providing flexibility and efficiency when it comes to features such as lighting. Building network security will also improve as new systems adopt IP-based networking and standardized protocols such as KNX IoT. These incorporate defined security mechanisms for devices, data, and network communications.

5. The Continued Rise of Smarter Buildings and Homes

Occupancy and spatial awareness technologies use location and presence information to enable a system to make intelligent, context-aware decisions that would otherwise be impossible. The ability to determine where a person or object is located within a home or building creates new opportunities for automation and efficiency.

For example, a smart door lock can automatically unlock when it detects the homeowner at the door. In a smart building, a conference room can automatically configure the lighting, HVAC, and IT equipment based on who enters and how many occupants are present. 

Ranging and sensing technologies such as ultrawideband (UWB), Wi-Fi sensing, and Bluetooth channel sounding, combined with edge processing, will form the basis for occupancy and spatial awareness solutions. And emerging standards like Aliro, alongside Matter and KNX IoT, will translate these capabilities into interoperable products that can revolutionize how spaces in homes and buildings are actually used.

6. IoT Security Regulations Will Continue to Evolve

Recent years have seen new regulations around the world emerging to protect consumers through improved IoT security. The EU has enacted multiple pieces of legislation, including the Cyber Resilience Act and Radio Equipment Directive (RED) updates, to address cybersecurity threats. In parallel, the U.S. government has partnered with industry leaders to create the U.S. Cyber Trust Mark, allowing consumers to quickly identify secure IoT products. 

IoT devices for smart buildings will need to go beyond cryptography and implement system-level security, securing both the device, communications, and the network they operate on. Standards like Matter, Thread, KNX IoT, and Wi-Fi include multiple security requirements for the network and communications, while silicon security helps implement those requirements and secure the device itself.

As with previous years, the requirements for IoT device security will continue to grow, leading device manufacturers to adopt new standards and technologies.

7. More Devices, Less Complexity Through Interoperability

The total number of connected IoT devices grew 13% year-over-year (YoY) in 2025 to 21.1Bn, according to IoT Analytics’ State of Enterprise IoT 2026 report. This translates into smart homes and buildings having hundreds of connected devices, often from different manufacturers. These devices must work together to deliver an autonomous home or building.

Protocols such as Matter and KNX-IoT enable different ecosystems and devices to seamlessly interact. For example, with KNX, you can use any two certified devices from any vendor, and they will simply work together at an application level in a secure way.

As 2026 unfolds, semiconductor providers, such as NXP, and groups like the Connectivity Standards Alliance and KNX Association will build upon these trends to bring innovations, security, and use cases to the IoT.