He argued that the battles over the best and fastest model won't be the defining factor for success when it comes to AI in the smart home. "The lasting value is going to be in what surrounds the model in a real home, the hardware that can converse with quality across every room, the system that already knows the shape of a home and the way a family lives in it, the connectivity to reach the speakers, services and devices that turn a request into coordinated action," Conrad said. "That's the operating environment for AI in the home, and Sonos has spent 20 years building it."
Sonos has a history of being an agnostic player in smart home tech. While its speakers are able to interface with Alexa (and formerly with Google Assistant), the skills of Sonos' own voice assistant only go as far as controlling your music. It has also promised better performance and specs than the budget options on the market from major brands like Amazon and Google, which have also been pushing the AI angle for their hardware.
Correction, July 30 2026, 3:22PM ET: This article previously stated that Sonos doesn't have its own in-house voice assistant, which is inaccurate. The story has been updated to reflect that Sonos does have a voice assistant with limited capabilities.
