Behind the Scenes of Josh.ai's 2026 Keynote: Creating the “Home in Harmony”
The 2026 Josh.ai Keynote Event was not only about unveiling new products, features, and partnerships. It represented the culmination of a decade of smart home development, demonstrating a fundamental shift in how smart homes are designed and should be experienced. That vision became Home in Harmony.
Months of hard work, creativity, and dedication from the entire Josh.ai team went into crafting the Home in Harmony concept. After everything that went into the event, we wanted to share an exclusive look at what went on behind the scenes along with a few fun bloopers in the making of our keynote.
The Idea: A Home That Adapts Instantly!
Early in the planning process, one theme continuously resonated: What if a home didn’t need to be pre-programmed at all?
Smart homes have historically required significant upfront configuration, followed by endless tweaks after a client moves in. That ongoing challenge faced by the custom installation industry led our team to want to prove times have changed. With Josh.ai, any home can be configured on the fly using natural language, by both integrators and homeowners.
That idea became the foundation for everything conceptualized behind the scenes, and ultimately shown in the event.
The Setting: A Real Home, Actively Responding
To bring this vision to life, our team selected a 12,000-square-foot coastal residence in Newport Beach, California. It wasn’t a set, but a fully integrated Josh.ai showcase property courtesy of our partners at Custom Connections.
Each area served a purpose to demonstrate everyday living while the installation unified environmental, entertainment, and more devices into a single cohesive system. Nothing was simulated and everything had to work in real time.
The Backbone: AI X OS
Every moment of the keynote was powered by AI X OS, Josh.ai’s forthcoming software update. As the next evolution of the Josh.ai platform, AI X OS connects every product and interaction across the home. Intelligence is embedded throughout Josh.ai’s touch, text, and voice interfaces to enable dynamic living experiences.
Reimagining the App Experience
One of our most significant updates was the redesigned Josh App. The enhanced user experience required rethinking how people live with technology in their homes so our team focused on simplification:
- A favorites-first home screen to instantly access what matters most
- A persistent media hub for instant control
- Intuitive navigation and automatic device categorization to keep the interface clean
- A reimagined voice experience for faster, more contextual interactions
- AI-guided scene creation suggests automations based on the home’s devices and each family’s routines
Behind the scenes, this meant balancing power with clarity to ensure the app felt personal without being overwhelming.
Making Control Feel Effortless: Josh Edge
The growing capabilities of Josh Edge shared the Keynote spotlight. Designed for shared living spaces, Josh Edge combines tactile interaction, near-field voice control, and AI-powered automation in a beautifully crafted aluminum form factor. For the keynote, our team pushed its capabilities further than ever:
- Instantly configuring button actions using natural language
- Dynamically adapting based on what’s happening in the space
- Seamlessly shifting between audio, video, and whole-home control
One of the most deceptively complex challenges was making Josh Edge’s adaptability feel obvious, despite the cutting edge intelligence behind it.
Empowering AI to Set the Scene
Automation has always been a powerful tool in the smart home, but often tedious to configure. With AI Scenes, our team set out to remove that friction entirely. Instead of programming dozens of device actions, users can simply describe what they want and the system intuits their request to build it.
Capturing this on camera required a subtle shift in storytelling. Rather than focusing on settings and sliders, the keynote emphasized the intent. Modern control should be about curating a mood for the moment, and the home responding in kind.
Building an Open Ecosystem
Another major focus this year wasn’t only what Josh can do, but also what it can connect with. With Nimble DevSuite, Josh.ai is accelerating integrations with new device partners and developers. Faster development means a more flexible ecosystem across environmental, entertainment, and the newly introduced outdoor category with native pool and spa support.
“Harmony” only works if everything plays in tune.
Filming the Experience
When production began, the directive was simple - Don’t overproduce it. Natural interactions, real timing, and minimal intervention was the key to unlocking the smart home of tomorrow.
The more authentic the environment, the more clearly the system’s intelligence would come through. When it simply works, it doesn’t need explanation.
