Smart home devices are rapidly gaining popularity in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, with six million devices now integrated into the daily lives of Alexa customers. This represents a significant increase of over 90% compared to last year.
Alexa is being used to control a variety of smart home devices, including lighting, air conditioners, TVs, and cameras. In 2023 alone, Alexa users in KSA and UAE initiated nearly 130 million smart home actions and made over 100 million requests for music, Quran recitations, and podcasts, totaling more than 70 million listening hours.
Enhancing Lifestyles with Smart Devices
Throughout 2023, Alexa turned lights on and off over 24 million times in homes across the UAE and KSA. Users relied on Alexa nearly 9 million times to control their air conditioners, making it the second-most frequently used smart home device. The Middle East is seeing a growing adoption of voice-enabled home automation, with a 50% year-over-year increase in smart home customers and a 90% increase in the number of devices connected to Alexa.
The popularity of Alexa in these regions is also reflected in user engagement, with Alexa receiving over 2 million declarations of love and 60,000 marriage proposals in 2023.
Dr. Raf Fatani, Regional General Manager for Alexa at Amazon MENA, commented, “The UAE and Saudi Arabia are embracing cutting-edge technologies with palpable excitement. We’re humbled by the rapid adoption of Alexa and our smart home devices. We’ve invested in local talent and resources to tailor our products for these markets, ensuring Alexa and our devices cater to unique customer needs. We’re excited to be at the forefront of AI advancement in the UAE and Saudi Arabia, with an unwavering passion for customer obsession here.”
Seamless Integration and New Features
Alexa now seamlessly integrates with a vast array of smart home devices, simplifying and automating daily tasks. Recently, Amazon introduced a multi-view feature for customers in UAE and KSA, allowing them to see live feeds from up to four cameras, including Ring, on their multimodal devices. Customers can use commands like “Show my Living Room cameras” to view their recently active cameras.
Mohammad Meraj Hoda, VP of Business Development – MEA at Ring, stated, “Ring is driven by the goal to provide our customers with peace of mind. We continue to focus on making homes more intuitive and making it easier to connect and control devices so that everything works together effortlessly.”
Most Common Smart Home Devices
Alexa customers in the UAE and KSA are utilizing the integrated smart home hub in Echo devices, which support standards like Zigbee, Sidewalk, Thread, Bluetooth, and Matter. This enables easy control of compatible lights, locks, and sensors.
The most commonly used lighting brands in smart homes in the UAE are Smart Life, Xiaomi, and Surplife. In the television segment, top brands connected to Alexa include Samsung, LG, and Broadlink IR Remote. For cameras, Ring, Eufy, and TP Link are the leading brands. For climate control, Smart Life, LG, and Honeywell are the preferred choices.
The smart home market in Saudi Arabia and the UAE is growing rapidly, with more customers embracing the convenience and efficiency offered by Alexa and other smart devices.
